KDSN RADIO News
Governor explores ways to upgrade power generation, water treatment plants
(Radio Iowa Photo)
Governor Kim Reynolds says it’s critical to ensure Iowa has enough electricity and upgraded water treatment plants, to support business expansion.
“Especially for rural Iowa, we need to figure that out,” Reynolds told Radio Iowa during a recent interview. “We’ve got a lot of capacity in rural Iowa, but if you don’t have the load capacity or you don’t have the water treatment capacity, it’s hard for those existing businesses to expand or think about locating there.”
Water treatment plants are expensive. For larger communities, it can cost $12 million for a plant that can handle an average of 10 million gallons per day. Reynolds said the cost for smaller communities, while less, cannot be easily borne by residents who’d pay higher utility bills to pay for it. “The populations aren’t where they need to be to sustain it,” the governor said,
The State Revolving Fund provides communities with low interest loans to finance drinking water systems, water treatment facilities and sewers, but Reynolds said she’s asked the director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority to review the range of state incentives that are available — and wahat could be proposed for the future.
“We’ve just kind of delving into that right now and taking a look at how do we then project that for the next 10 to 20 years,” Reynolds said, “and how do I get in front of that and make us competitive when businesses are looking at locating and expanding in Iowa.”
The EPA recently announced a dozen drinking water systems in Iowa need upgrades to remove so-called “forever chemicals” that are linked to sites where firefighters have used foam to quickly put out fires.
