(Spirit Lake)– Dickinson County Supervisors last week heard an update on some changes to drainage laws. John Torbert of the Iowa Drainage District Association says one of the most important ones stems from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on what’s known as the “Waters of the US”, or WOTUS, that would have given the EPA the ability to regulate navigable waters, including drainage districts…
Torbert says there were also some positive developments in the last session of the Iowa Legislature, including a new law requiring railroads to pay for repairs to culverts and drainage systems that go through their properties, something they previously had been exempt from.
He says another pertains to levy districts along the Missouri River in western Iowa. As part of that, Torbert says the Department of Homeland Security has been tasked with inspecting the levies. It also established $5 million in funding from gambling revenue that will go toward a cost sharing program to maintain the levies…
Torbert says the threshold for which an engineer’s opinion is needed for drainage repairs has also been increased to $196,000.
