Drainage districts exist not to support polluters’ “health, convenience or welfare,” but are grounded in a principle of public good, the common good.
It is disappointing but perhaps not surprising that those charged with operating drainage districts in the state are rebelling at the thought that someone might expect them to act on behalf of the public.
A new Iowa Policy Project paper suggests answers to nitrate contamination of Iowa waters and the Mississippi River Basin exist within drainage districts that currently are part of the problem.
In a Cedar Rapids Gazette story today, John Torbert of the Iowa Drainage District Association, says that drainage districts’ “sole purpose of existing is to drain excess water from the land.” That is a very incomplete understanding of their role.
That subsection, also cited and quoted in the IPP paper (page 4) puts a responsibility on drainage districts to be set up for the public good.
Note the language is not that these districts exist to support polluters’ health, convenience or welfare. Their existence is grounded in a principle of public good, the common good.