Prospects for water works reorganization sinking as water quality efforts rise

DES MOINES - Prospects for legislation to reorganize the Des Moines Water Works appears to be sinking in the Iowa House, but the floor manager of a water quality improvement bill said Friday momentum for taking action this year growing.

In part, that's because of bipartisan support for the issue, Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, said during taping of Iowa Press that can be seen at 7 p.m. on Iowa Public Television.

'I think the bill addressing water quality funding is one that both parties, Democrat and Republican, have an interest in talking about,” added Rep. Chris Hall, D-Sioux City, who called Baltimore's bill - House File 538 - 'a very creative approach” even if it doesn't go far enough.

However, he called the bill to shift control of the Des Moines Water Works from an independent board to the city council of those communities involved in the system that delivers water to customers in the Des Moines region 'ill-informed.”

Baltimore said lawmakers are continuing to talk about HF 484, water works legislation to determine if they should bring it to the floor or continue to make changes.

Although there continues to be disagreement about the state's water quality problems and what should be done, Baltimore believes HF 538 will establish a framework for fostering collaborative efforts between rural and urban communities 'to allow them to get funding, define their own problem, figure out how to solve their own problem and at the same time do so in a very cost effective manner.”

One of the sticking points, however, continues to be how to fund those efforts. Baltimore doubted lawmakers will raise the sales tax to fund a voter-approved water trust 'without having underlying structure on how we're going to coordinate these projects, how we're going to design them and how we're going to ultimately prioritize them to make sure that we're getting the most bang for our buck.”

When there is a plan in place, he said, the state could fold in the sales tax increase that would raise about $105 million a year.

'If we put that into this system we can then turn around and leverage that to the point where we can have between $2 and $4 billion,” he said.

Why wait, said Hall, believes many Democrats support increasing the sales tax to fund water quality.

'Right now there are over $1 billion of identified projects that would need to occur in order to correct Iowa's impaired waterways,” Hall said. By waiting to raise the tax, it would take more than a decade to have the resources to really make a dent in it and a decade from now we're going to be even deeper in trouble than we are at the present.”

Iowa Press can be seen at 7 p.m. and noon Sunday on IPTV, at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV World and online at www.IPTV.org.

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