Central Iowa Water Works reflects after summer nitrate crisis

Date:2025-08-28 13:46:26 Category:US Views:1 Comment:0

DES MOINES, Iowa — Central Iowa Water Works is in the process of reviewing how it responded to the spike in nitrates in all three of its source waters this past summer, leading to a lawn watering ban for central Iowa customers.

“There’s a misconception that once the CIWW was formed that we served a greater population, and that simply isn’t the case. Central Iowa Water Works serves the same 600,000 people that we served before, with the exception of Grimes. But they brought their own treatment facility. What made this year different is that all three sources of water, the Des Moines, Raccoon and Infiltration Gallery, were above ten milligrams per liter, which created additional treatment challenges for us,” Tami Madsen, the Executive Director of Central Iowa Water Works, said.

Madsen said that she was thankful for central Iowan’s compliance with the lawn watering ban.

“It was a challenging decision to ask for people to not water their lawns. But we’re really proud and thankful that people understood the need to not water and really rose to the challenge.”

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At a Central Iowa Water Works board meeting Wednesday afternoon, Amy Kahler, the CEO of Des Moines Water Works, shared information about the watersheds that provide source water for Central Iowa Water Works.

“In our watershed, 70 to 80% of the land is in road rock. And so our source water is heavily influenced by agriculture and what happens on that land,” Kahler said. “And I want to be clear, this is not to point fingers or to place blame, which can sometimes happen when we fight that statistic. It is simply a statistic.”

Madsen said that Central Iowa Water Works believes in a collaborative approach to improve source water quality.

“The conservation district has been very generous with their time to really educate on those conservation methods. And I think this is really gonna be a collaborative effort on solving our source of water challenges,” Madsen said.