Gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand hears water shortage concerns in western Iowa roundtable

EXIRA, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa Capitol Bureau) – Some western Iowa towns are under boil water advisories. Residents haven’t been able to drink straight from the tap for about two weeks now. Democratic candidate for Governor Rob Sand stopped in to talk to residents of one town.

Tuesday morning, residents in Exira got notice that it’s okay to drink water from the tap again, ending weeks of having to boil water. The Regional Water Rural Water Association says the root of the issue is loss of pressure from high demand.

City Clerk Meg Anderson says they’re exploring alternative water supplies, but they’re beholden to a contract with the utility.

“We hope that we can constructively work together and negotiate something moving forward, but if we can’t, we will pursue those legal options if we need to,” she said.

She says people in town have been resilient, but the outages have had an impact.

“We had restaurants who had to amend their hours or change their menus because they couldn’t use their ice or soda fountains or accrue additional costs. Or businesses who may have had loss of revenue because, you know, they can’t shampoo every customer who comes in the door to get a haircut,” she said.

Rob Sand, Democratic candidate for Governor, stopped in to talk to residents Tuesday.

“State government needs to do more to pay attention to issues like this that maybe don’t affect people that state government this necessarily are important but they should be listening to them because they affect Iowans,” he said.

Sand says there’s likely no silver bullet to solve the town’s water issues and he didn’t offer any solutions of his own, but says lawmakers should’ve worked together this session to address it.

“Hey, we have people over here in this region that don’t have water right now. Here are the statutes that are standing in their way and here are the exceptions we’re going to build into them for situations like this, right. Did that happen? No,” he said.

Mayor Mike Huegerich says demand for water goes up in the summer months, and he’s concerned boil water advisories could come back.

“We’re not out of the woods by no means for this, I mean. They keep saying we need the rain, well it’s raining today, but we need a lot of rain to make up the difference,” he said.

A new connection with a water source in Council Bluffs should relieve their issues but town leaders are skeptical it’s a permanent fix.

Residents in Exira, Earling, and Brayton no longer have to boil their water but people who live in Panama, and Portsmouth still do.

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Conner Hendricks covers state government and politics for Gray Media-owned stations in Iowa. Email him at conner.hendricks@gray.tv; and follow him on Facebook at Conner Hendricks TV on X/Twitter @ConnerReports, and on TikTok @ConnerReports.

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