Des Moines Water Works
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| public utility | |
| Industry | water |
| Founders | Frederic Hubbell, Jefferson S. Polk, B. F. Allen |
| Headquarters | Des Moines, United States |
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Area served
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Greater Des Moines Metropolitan area |
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Key people
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Leslie A. Gearhart, Chairperson, William G. Stowe, CEO and General Manager |
| Products | drinking water |
| Owner | rate payers |
The Des Moines Water Works(DMWW) is a publicly owned, municipal water utility founded 1871 in Des Moines, which provides water to half a million residents of the greater Des Moines metropolitan area. As of 2017[update], it has three treatment facilities. In March 2015, the DMWW board sued 3 Iowa counties for violating the Clean Water Act with high nitrate discharges, which contribute to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Des Moines Water Works are a municipal water utility, owned by the about 500,000 residents of the greater Des Moines area, whom it supplies with water. It is Iowa´s largest water utility and among the largest 100 utilities in the country.
In 1871, Frederic Hubbell and Jefferson S. Polk organized the Des Moines Water Company with $3000. B. F. Allen, helped to raise $250,000 and became the company’s first president. The company passed to Polk & Hubbell, and in 1880 to a , where a stockholder-elected board of five directors appointed a president, secretary, and one member, with the exclusive rights to operate the company for 40 years. The Water Company was built on Walnut Street in Des Moines using Holly system hydrants, which could throw six streams at a time. The city demanded 10 miles of pipe within 10 months and "hydrants were placed for citizens or passersby to draw water for purposes of drinking". Pumps discharged about 2 million gallons per day (mgd). In its first year from June 1872 through June 1873, the Water Works´ operating costs were $5,770 and consumers paid no city taxes for water use.
Water came from an iron filtering tank in the gravel and sand of the Raccoon River near the water’s edge, 12 feet in diameter and 14 feet high, open at the bottom and closed at the top with perforations to let water in. The iron filters constantly plugged and after 10 years, in 1883, an infiltration gallery system to use groundwater along the river was planned, the first of its kind in the U.S. From 1884-1885, 750 feet of a wooden gallery were constructed, and the iron filters were abolished. A small primitive dam on the Raccoon River increased the water level near the gallery. In 1880, the name was changed to Des Moines Water Works Company. In 1891, the first water tower was constructed, holding 530,000 gallons of water, used until 1931, and torn down in 1939.
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