Recent legal action by Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) has gained particularly strong attention in the source water protection community as well as the agricultural sector. In January, DMWW issued a notice of intent to sue three counties over high nitrate levels in the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers. The counties oversee the drainage districts that manage agricultural runoff from area farms.
In the summers of 2013 and 2014, DMWW experienced record-setting nitrate loads in its water supplies. The notice claims that the high nitrate loads from drainage system effluent is a point source transported via constructed artificial drainage systems and therefore does not qualify for the NPDES permitting exemption for agricultural stormwater runoff because it is in essence “artificially drained groundwater” and not a stormwater discharge. The notice, filed under the citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act, stated DMWW will take legal action if corrective actions to address the pollution were not taken within 60 days.
Seeing insufficient movement from the potential defendants during the 60 days, the Board of Water Works Trustees of the City of Des Moines voted to give DMWW authority to pursue the lawsuit. On March 16, DMWW filed a complaint under the CWA in federal district court “to declare the named drainage districts are point sources pollutants, are not exempt from regulation, and are required to have a permit under federal and Iowa law.”
The DWSS intent to sue and subsequent lawsuit have gained high-level attention because of the potential to significantly change the landscape of how source water is protected from agricultural runoff. It is an issue that bears close watching in the coming months.