Officials of the Des Moines Water Works last week announced they will spend $15 million to double the size of the utility’s nitrate removal facility. They say the upgrade is needed to handle increasing levels of nitrate in the water supply from the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers.

The Water Works board approved an $800,000 contract with CH2M, an engineering and consulting firm in West Des Moines, to design the facility expansion. Water Works officials say the new equipment and the cost to operate it will mean bigger rate increases for its water customers in coming years. Water Works CEO Bill Stowe says most of the nitrates are coming from tile drainage from farm fields, and he’s blaming farmers for higher water bills his customers will have to pay.

The Water Works growth plan follows its recently failed lawsuit against 10 drainage districts in three northwest Iowa counties (Buena Vista, Calhoun, Sac). The suit claimed the county boards of supervisors, which oversee drainage districts in the counties, are responsible for high nitrate levels reaching the Raccoon River, which supplies water for 500,000 central Iowans.

Utility says nitrate in rivers increasing
The lawsuit cited tile drainage from farm fields as the main source of nitrates. The suit sought damages for money the utility has spent to remove nitrates from source water. Des Moines Water Works says it spent $633,000 to operate nitrate removal equipment for 65 days in 2016. It spent $1.2 million in 2015.

District Court Judge Leonard Strand dismissed the lawsuit March 17, saying Iowa’s water quality problems are an issue for the Iowa Legislature to deal with, not the court system. With the lawsuit now gone, Stowe says the utility must look at how it will handle “the growing presence of nitrates in the water we get from the rivers.”

According to a 2016 report from CH2M, the same consulting firm hired to design the facility’s expansion, the nitrate concentrations in the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers have been increasing and are expected to continue to rise in the future.

Partnership isn’t buying Water Works argument
Reacting to last week’s announcement that the Water Works plans to spend $15 million for additional water treatment infrastructure, the Iowa Partnership for Clean Water issued a statement. IPCW is a nonprofit organization focused on broadening the understanding of agriculture, as it pertains to clean water and conservation initiatives within Iowa.

IPCW disagrees with Des Moines Water Works’ claim that the utility must expand its water treatment facility solely due to nitrate content in source water from the rivers.

In 2016, IPCW commissioned former Des Moines Water Works CEO L.D. McMullen to review the CH2M report that serves as the basis for the Water Works overall capital improvement plan. The resulting white paper by McMullen concludes that increased demand due to population growth in the Des Moines metropolitan area is the primary factor contributing to the need for expansion of Water Works facilities not nitrate content in source waters.

Contrary to Water Works’ continued claims, McMullen’s findings from the CH2M report and other sources show that source water quality in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers have shown no statistically significant trend in almost 15 years. The demand for water fueled by population growth, however, is changing.

Population growth
As central Iowa communities continue to plan for their water future, it’s important to understand the factors driving the need for expansion in order to develop the most appropriate, cost-effective solutions, says Christine Hensley, a Des Moines city councilwoman and member of IPCW. Also, when all communities in the region face rate hikes and bear the cost of unsuccessful litigation and misplaced priorities, all communities deserve to have their voices heard. This is why IPCW supports the further exploration of establishing a regional water facility, she says.

In recent comments to the press, Water Works CEO Bill Stowe mentions the potential impact to his utility’s infrastructure upgrades if suburban communities break away from the Water Works system and build their own water treatment facilities. “If these communities move forward and establish their own water source and treatment facilities, the need to expand Des Moines' nutrient removal facility could be diminished,” Stowe says. "Some expansion of the Des Moines Water Works will need to be done, but we'll pace it differently if some suburbs are taking a hard turn and will no longer be buying water from us." 

Farmers blamed for higher water bills
These comments by Stowe and his board speak to the great impact of population growth and overall consumer demand, rather than nitrate content, on infrastructure decisions made at the Water Works, says IPCW.

It will always be necessary to treat river water to ensure it is safe to drink, but it stands to reason that if more water is being used, more water will need to be treated. Infrastructure improvements will need to address capacity issues first and foremost, and should be scalable, in order for the utility to treat more water, as it is needed, says IPCW. The group urges water stakeholders in central Iowa to consider these factors as the Water Works moves forward in implementing infrastructure improvements. 

“It is clear that population growth, and resulting demand, is the major driver of infrastructure costs for Des Moines Water Works,” says Don Kass, an IPCW board member. “It is my hope that all contributing factors are taken into account moving forward, rather than blame being placed solely on Iowa farmers upstream for double-digit rate increases that cover a much wider scope. Case in point, it was noted during the Iowa Supreme Court case that the resulting cost to a typical Water Works customer to run the nitrate removal equipment is about 1 cent per day. Des Moines Water Works did not dispute those costs. That certainly puts things in perspective.”