(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Metro drinking water consolidation plan reaches final stages [1]
['Jared Strong', 'More From Author', '- September']
Date: 2023-09-28
Water utilities in the Des Moines metro area are nearing an agreement to unify the production of drinking water, which they say will reduce future costs and make the supply more resilient.
About a dozen utilities are expected to ratify a plan in the coming months to create Central Iowa Water Works, which would own the existing and future water supply and treatment facilities that serve more than half a million residents. The plan has been solidified over the past two years.
City and rural utilities would still own and manage their water distribution systems.
Des Moines Water Works is the current supplier of most of that water. As the city’s suburbs have grown and relied on its water, the utility has reached a point in which most of the water it produces — about 60% — goes to the suburbs.
“We have two rivers, and we’re blessed, typically, with abundant water, but it’s not an infinite source, and it’s not an inexhaustible source,” said Ted Corrigan, the chief executive of DMWW. “Other communities have looked at using the rivers upstream, from sort of a competitive environment. … We’d rather do that cooperatively.”
The new plan would create a governing board that evens the authority the different cities have over their water production. Utilities that serve more than 100,000 people get two votes, and Des Moines is the only city with that many people, according to U.S. Census data.
Ankeny and West Des Moines each have populations of about 70,000. Based on current population growth rates, it will be decades before they have more than 100,000.
While DMWW will cede some measure of control of the facilities it has created and cultivated over the years, Corrigan said the collaboration will provide more certainty that the metro’s water production can weather unforeseen problems.
Right now, “we bear all the risk,” he said.
It also means that DMWW is poised to get more than $60 million from the other utilities to compensate it for its considerable water production infrastructure, according to a current draft of the agreement. Those equalization payments take into account the water production facilities that each utility has and what percentage of the total production they will use.
Ankeny and Johnston, for example, will pay more than $10 million apiece, whereas West Des Moines Water Works, which produces most of its city’s water, will pay less than $300,000.
Those figures could change depending on whether all of the metro-area utilities join Central Iowa Water Works. Altoona and Bondurant have indicated they will not, Corrigan said.
The money paid to DMWW will be mostly used to bolster its water distribution infrastructure, Corrigan said. That might include water main replacements and perhaps a new water tower, in the near term.
The switch to regional water production is not expected to reduce rates for customers immediately. Corrigan said longer-term rates for Des Moines residents will be “slightly less” under the proposed scenario.
West Des Moines residents might save up to 30% on their water bills in future years, said Christina Murphy, general manager of West Des Moines Water Works.
“The price is going to go up, but we think that by regionalizing we’re going to save our customers in the long run,” she said.
The utilities are hosting meetings Thursday night to discuss the plan. One starts at 6 p.m. at the South Side Library at 1111 Porter Ave. in Des Moines. The other starts at 6:30 p.m. in West Des Moines, at the Valley Junction Activity Center at 217 Fifth St.
The water utilities expected to join Central Iowa Water Works include: Ankeny, Clive, Des Moines Water Works, Johnston, Grimes, Norwalk, Polk City, Urbandale Water Utility, Warren Water District, Waukee, West Des Moines Water Works and Xenia Rural Water District.
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