James Larew is an attorney in Iowa City who served as general counsel and chief of staff for former Governor Chet Culver. This post is a revised version of a letter he sent to Polk County supervisors as a public comment before their July 1 meeting.
We are on the cusp of a civil rights movement—a movement to protect citizens’ fundamental right to access clean water.
In the mid-1840s, our ancestors marveled at the “well-watered” rivers and creeks and the readily-available water supply.
But for the confluence of the abundant and clean waters of the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers, the City of Des Moines and the nearby communities would likely never have amounted to anything. Instead, that resource allowed for the founding of a capital city and a robust economy.
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