Water Works trustees vote against appeal

The Des Moines Water Works Board of Trustees voted Wednesday not to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that dismissed their lawsuit against 10 drainage districts in three counties, including Calhoun.
Calhoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott Jacobs said he was reserving comment on the decision until the appeal deadline – Monday – had passed.
“As an independent water utility, the sole focus of Des Moines Water Works is to provide safe and affordable drinking water to the 500,000 Iowans we serve,” Water Works CEO Bill Stowe said in a press release on the organization’s website late Wednesday. “Water quality is an issue that we take very seriously, and the conclusion of the lawsuit will not change that. While many in the agriculture community and state political leadership took issue with the lawsuit, nobody objected to the facts showing drainage districts are polluters. The risks remain and demand immediate accountability to protect our state.”
Stowe and Water Works officials said in the written release that the federal ruling “did not dispute the assertion that drainage districts cause water quality problems in the Raccoon River Watershed. Rather, the court indicated that Des Moines Water Works may well have suffered an injury, but the drainage districts lack the legal ability to redress that injury.”
Stowe said state policy and law needs to keep pace with public health and water quality concerns.
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