(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors Tuesday heard an update from the Iowa Drainage District Association. Spokesman John Torbert reported it’s been relatively quiet in the Iowa Legislature this session when it comes to bills addressing drainage. He added that will likely change in the future, especially when it comes to what role, if any, drainage districts should have with water quality…
“That’s a tricky path as I have said before. Right now there is not a lot of movement in the area. There was a great deal of discussion about it, we had the Des Moines Waterworks lawsuit. We know what happened there when the court cited on behalf of the drainage districts. So right now frankly there isn’t a lot discussion on the legislative level or the regulatory level about getting drainage districts involved in water quality. Our concern is that if you open that door you’re really exposing landowners to a lot of potential cost if you start making water quality a per view of drainage districts. So right now it’s pretty quiet in that area, not to say it can’t happen in the future.”
When it comes to that, Supervisor Steve Clark said he believes that discussion may be coming sooner rather than later…
“I see a lot of movement in social circles about water quality and things like this and it’s something I think is eventually going to come to an association like this and become an item that needs to be discussed.”
