~by Jim Caufield, The Perry News
John Muir, chair of the Greene County board of supervisors, attended an organizational meeting for the North Raccoon River water management authority (WMA) in Lake City Sept. 8. He reported to the supervisors that he recommends Greene County’s participation.
The Iowa legislature created the legal basis for WMAs after the disastrous 2008 floods. Their purpose is to put in place conservation practices, such as farm ponds and wetlands that control downstream flooding and improve water quality in the watershed. The usual course for Iowa’s WMAs — there are now 17 — is to form themselves and then start chasing grant dollars. The singular virtue of the North Raccoon WMA is the $3.8 million in flood-control funding ready and waiting for it from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). All the North Raccoon WMA has to do to get the HUD money is form itself legally.
Once formed, the North Raccoon will be the biggest WMA in Iowa in terms of its territorial extent. The watershed drains 2.3 million acres of cropland in west-central Iowa and provides drinking water to 500,000 people in Des Moines and the surrounding region.
It will also be the largest WMA in terms of the number of members. Cities, counties and county soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs) are eligible for membership, and the North Raccoon WMA’s eligibility list includes some 57 cities, 14 counties and 14 SWCDs.
Representatives from five of those cities, five counties and one SWCD attended the Lake City meeting, which was organized by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Flood Center.
John Muir of rural Jefferson, chair of the Greene County board of supervisors, attended the North Raccoon organizing meeting and said he would recommend joining the WMA to his fellow supervisors.
“I think their intentions are good,” Muir said. “There’s nothing that makes me feel like Greene County shouldn’t be involved in it. I think it’s good they’ve got the money. I was kind of excited. I thought, if you have that kind of money, you could do a lot of bioreactors. You could definitely get a lot of farmers’ attention.”
While water quality is part of the WMAs’ mandate, the HUD funding is earmarked specifically for flood control practices, according to Larry Weber, research engineer and executive director of the University of Iowa’s IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering research center. Weber gave the opening remarks at the Lake City meeting.
“This is a flood-first program from HUD,” Weber said, “but it’s not just about rebuilding and recovering and putting money into infrastructure. That’s important, but it’s about developing a plan to move to the future and to make sure that we’re better prepared, so we want to reduce flooding, improve water quality, increase resilience and gain stakeholders.”
Weber assured the local lawmakers and public employees they would be the ones to lead the North Raccoon WMA. It will not be a top-down power structure, he said.
“We want the planning work, the goal setting, the ideas of locations of practices — all of that work is to be led locally,” he said. “We’ll provide the technical assistance, but we want this to be locally led. We’re not going to come here and tell you what to do.”
The $3.7 million for the North Raccoon WMA is part of a $97 million pot Uncle Sam gave to Iowa in January for nine statewide watershed improvement projects called the Iowa Watershed Approach. Along with the North Raccoon WMA, the $97 million in HUD money is supporting the creation of WMAs for Bee Branch Creek, Clear Creek, East Nishnabotna River, English River, Middle Cedar River, Upper Iowa River, Upper Wapsipinicon River and West Nishnabotna River.
The first meeting of the Beaver Creek WMA attracted 21 attendees, including Ray Harden of Perry and Doug Volz of Bouton, both members of the Dallas County SWCD, as well as supervisors from Boone and Greene counties and the director of the Polk County Public Works Department.
Perry is also one of 25 members in the Beaver Creek WMA, which is both smaller than the North Raccoon WMA and further along in its formation.
It filed legal papers July 25 with the Iowa Secretary of State’s office and held its first formal meeting Sept. 20 at the Towncraft Center in Perry.
Membership includes 16 cities, five SWCDs and four counties.
Muir was similarly supportive of Greene County’s membership in the Beaver Creek WMA, both for its flood-control potential and the opportunity to address water quality in a collaborative way.
