Iowa Citizens Community Improvement (ICCI) and Food & Water Watch, a group of non-governmental organizations that handle corporate and government food-related accountability, water and corporate outreach, filed a class action lawsuit against Iowa.

The lawsuit alleges that Iowa violated its obligation to protect the Raccoon River for the use and benefit of all residents of the state.

This obligation is called the doctrine of public trust and requires the state to protect public use, and not to give up control over private interests. The lawsuit states that the state does not fulfill its duty. The groups are represented by Public Justice, Food & Water Watch, Roxanne Conlin & Associates, and Channing Dutton, Lawyer, Lawyer, Dutton & Drake LLP.

“Iowa residents are tired of being told that our interests — our water, our health, our public water supply, our drinking water, our wallets — must be compromised or balanced with the interests of corporate companies and other industries who want to ruin our life for profit. Our lawsuit keeps the state at a higher level - for us, for our children and our grandchildren, ”said Adam Mason, director of public policy at ICCI in an ICCI press release.

According to ICCI, the Raccoon River is a source of drinking water for 500,000 Iowa residents. According to an ICCI press release, Iowa's largest Des Moines Waterworks (DMWW) has one of the most expensive nitrate removal systems in the world.

ICCI says the utility’s fight for safe drinking water by Des Moines residents was documented in a 2015 lawsuit against upstream counties, claiming that their inability to regulate tile drains resulted in an excessive amount of hazardous nitrates in the river’s source water Raccoon.