Sand sticks up for Exira, but isn’t ready to talk about ag pollution

Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand was talking about water quality this past week. Naturally, I was curious.

You may have noticed I’ve written a few columns about the issue.

Sand held a roundtable discussion in Exira, a western Iowa community dealing with serious drinking water quality problems. The small town was recently under a boil order amid fears low water pressure would result in bacterial contamination.

Exira is among several communities served by the Regional Water Association who were directed to boil water before use. The town has been under “Level Yellow” water use rules since 2023 due to drought conditions. That means water should not be used for gardening, washing cars or filling swimming pools.

Sand heard from coffee shop owners who couldn’t make drinks and the mother of a newborn who struggled with the boil order. A restaurant at a gas station couldn’t make food and laid off employes. It’s a costly mess.

Sand deserves credit for visiting the town and putting a spotlight on its problems. The event resulted in news stories from several outlets. If he continues to use his campaign to tell these kinds of stories, he’ll be doing more than scoring political points.

But I wanted to know whether Sand has a vision for the state’s biggest, most stubborn water quality issue. Maybe you’ve heard fertilizer runoff from cropland and livestock waste are contaminating streams, rivers and lakes. What does Sand think?

His campaign gave me 10 minutes to talk with him.

“You can define a problem two ways. One is whether or not it impacts many people. The other is the measure of the impact on a person,” Sand said to my question about his vision for cleaning up Iowa’s water. “And if you live in the regional water rural water association area and you literally have your tap run dry, or you have to boil all the water that you use, I'd say that's a big problem …

“And that's why we were out in that area yesterday, yeah, and I think that we should have more attention to that issue, because literally, it is such a perfect example of the fact that in Des Moines, they've been really focused on special interest groups and doing what insiders want.”

Obviously, Sand wanted to stick to the subject of Exira. I certainly wasn’t trying to ignore local drinking water issues there and elsewhere.

But I wanted to know when it comes to agricultural pollution, does Sand think we should stick with our faith-based system, hoping more farmers will voluntarily take action, or does he think regulations are needed? You know, laws. The voluntary system isn’t making meaningful progress in cleaning up our water. Just ask the puny shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. The dead zone starts here in Iowa.

“Oh, look, we're going to be rolling out policy on many issues throughout the course of 18 months. But if I'm in Exira, if I'm in Brighton … and when we’re talking about water, and then revert it into the same debate that we've been having for the last 15 years, then we're missing the fact that our state government at this point is so unresponsive to people that there are literally Iowans who have had these restrictions in place for years, who are getting nothing out of their state government,” Sand said.

But the state is also unresponsive to issues plaguing waterways while harming communities that depend on local lake tourism or other outdoor recreation and families who want to take their kids for a dip in the lake. Also, the drinking water supply for Des Moines is threatened by pollution from cropland making its way into the Raccoon River.

Cedar Rapids is planning to “activate” the Cedar River for water recreation. But kayaking in nitrate-laden water could be a tough sell.

I know, it is early. But I’m anxious to know if Sand will be like so many Democratic candidates before him who shrugged at the problem because of the risk of ticking off farmers.

So, I tried one more time to ask about voluntary vs. laws.

“Yeah, I mean, that's just not, that's not the issue in Exira right now,” Sand said.

So, three strikes and I was out, after seven minutes.

I wasn’t trying to trap Sand with gotcha questions. He is the top contender at this point for the Democratic nomination and could become governor. His administration would shape our water quality policy for four years, and maybe more.

Sand is running as a pragmatic centrist who can attract voters of all stripes to his campaign. It could be a smart strategy in a state where a Democrat hasn’t been elected governor in 20 years. Democrats need to win to break the trifecta of doom.

But I fear he’s more likely to stick to the status quo than ruffle farmer feathers.

Farmers aren’t the only people in rural Iowa, and I’m still convinced cleaning up our water could be a winning issue there. Very few politicians have agreed with me.

This isn’t all on candidates. Voters who care about water need to press them for answers. Let them know this is not a back burner issue.

What Sand showed us in Exira is people don’t like to be pawns in a game they didn’t ask to play and have little power to control. Sounds a lot like the farm pollution problem.

I know it’s early, but I had to ask.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com