The Legislature finds and declares that protection of the environment is enhanced by the public's voluntary compliance with environmental requirements and the local counterpart or extension of such requirements and that the public will benefit from incentives to identify and remedy environmental compliance issues. The Legislature further declares that it is in the public interest to encourage such activities by assuring limited protection of environmental audit findings and of providing fair treatment of those who report environmental audit findings to regulatory authorities.
§ 25-21,254.Legislative intent.
Article 21: Special Proceedings and Actions · Last amended 1998 · Last verified July 22, 2026
In one sentenceThis section states the Legislature’s finding that voluntary environmental compliance audits benefit the public, and declares its intent to encourage them by giving audit findings limited protection from disclosure and fair treatment to those who report the findings to regulators.
Full Text of § 25-21,254
Source
Laws 1998, LB 395, § 1.
Plain-English Summary
Section 25-21,254 opens the group of sections that give Nebraska’s environmental self-audits a measure of protection, and it explains the thinking behind that protection before laying out any rule. The Legislature found that protecting the environment improves when the public voluntarily complies with environmental requirements, and that the public benefits when businesses and individuals have an incentive to identify and remedy environmental compliance problems on their own.
From that finding, the Legislature declared a public interest in encouraging voluntary compliance reviews. It planned to do that in two ways: by giving limited protection to what an environmental audit turns up, and by giving fair treatment to those who report audit findings to the agencies that regulate them. Those two commitments become the operative rules in the sections that follow — the evidentiary privilege in section 25-21,256 and its surrounding provisions, and the voluntary-disclosure protections in sections 25-21,260 and 25-21,261.
Like the equine liability intent section earlier in this chapter, this section does not itself create a privilege, an immunity, or a procedure. It supplies the policy rationale a court can draw on when interpreting the sections that do.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this section create a legal protection by itself?
Why does Nebraska protect voluntary environmental audits?
The Legislature found that the public benefits when people voluntarily comply with environmental requirements and have an incentive to find and fix compliance problems on their own, rather than waiting for a regulator to find them first.
What does the Legislature mean by “fair treatment” of those who report audit findings?
Why would a business conduct a voluntary environmental audit if it is not legally required?
The sections that follow give a properly prepared, confidential audit a measure of protection from being used as evidence, and give a business that discloses and corrects what the audit finds a path to avoid civil penalties.
Does a court have to follow this stated intent when applying the later sections?
The stated findings and intent inform how a court reads the operative provisions, though the specific rules — including the privilege, its exceptions, and the disclosure requirements — are set out in the sections that follow.
Source & verification. Section text and the amendment-history citation are
reproduced verbatim from the Nebraska Legislature, Revisor of Statutes, enacted by the
Nebraska Legislature. Last verified July 22, 2026. ·
Official source
Also known as: nebraska environmental audit privilege intentwhy protect voluntary environmental self-auditsvoluntary compliance audit nebraska lawenvironmental audit statute purpose nebraskaself-reporting environmental violations nebraska legislative intent