Cedar Rapids’ Corbett: Des Moines Water Works suit threatens Iowa farmers and rural communities
Published
12/7/2015
Along with leading Cedar Rapids, Ron Corbett serves as a board member of the Iowa Partnership for Clean Water (IPCW), a group formed earlier this year to encourage collaboration among urban and rural communities to improve water quality and discourage frivolous lawsuits that will do nothing to improve water quality.
"I’m very happy to be in leadership of the partnership," he said.
Farmers’ story buried
The story of farmers’ efforts and progress often gets buried in the media, Corbett said last week during a seminar to explore grassroots partnerships at the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting in Des Moines. "Sometimes if you just read a headline or two, you would assume that the farm community is doing nothing on this issue. And that is far from the case," he said.
The IPCW, Corbett said, is also working to counter efforts by the Des Moines Water Works (DMWW), which is seeking to build public support for its lawsuit against three northwest Iowa counties over water quality issues.
"We also want to challenge DMWW and their lawsuit and show that the cooperative approach is the better way to go, versus the lawsuit approach," the Cedar Rapids mayor said.
This is personal
The lawsuit, Corbett said, could do further damage to rural Iowa, which is already struggling.
"When you come to Des Moines or Cedar Rapids, you see a lot of population growth," he said. "But in rural Iowa you see a population declining, schools closing and Main Street businesses shutting down. And this lawsuit will only take away the livelihood of farmers and others and hurt rural communities even more."
Corbett said that he’s heard complaints that IPCW was only formed to fight DMWW CEO Bill Stowe and it’s being too personal.
But he countered: "Yes, it is personal. If their lawsuit succeeds and it ends up adversely affecting the livelihood of farmers and other Iowans, it would be very personal to them and their communities."
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