The outcome of the Des Moines Water Works’ (DMWW) lawsuit against three northwest Iowa counties, if it is ultimately filed, could revolve around whether a court considers the water in agricultural drainage tiles as storm water, according to two legal analyses of the potential case.

In separate writings about the potential case, Kristine Tidgren of Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation (CALT), and Jonathan Coppess, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, both cite the...