Attorneys argue drainage code before state’s highest court

Iowa Supreme Court justices pressed an attorney for the Des Moines Water Works about the utility’s end game in a lawsuit brought against 10 drainage districts in three northwestern Iowa counties.
The case has been filed in federal court; justices there sent several questions to the state Supreme Court, asking the state justices to weigh in on whether Iowa law really does protect drainage districts the way the counties and their attorneys argue it does.
“Let’s say you win your case 100 percent,” Justice Edward Mansfield asked attorney John Lande. “What is the injunction against the drainage districts going to say?”
Lande tried repeating language presented in the water works’ court arguments, that the utility wanted the courts to order the districts to abate a nuisance – namely the introduction of nitrates in to the Raccoon River. Mansfield interrupted Lande, asking for a more specific answer. Lande started again, and Mansfield broke in for a second time, again asking for a specific example of a remedy. 
Read more in the Sept. 21 edition.