One local state senator is reacting to the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling against Des Moines Water Works and their lawsuit against three Iowa counties.

On Friday the court ruled against the water utility, who was attempting to hold Sac, Calhoun, and Buena Vista counties responsible for underground drainage tiles pumping nitrates into the Raccoon River basin. State Senator Ken Rozenboom agreed with the ruling, which he believes affirms more than a century of legal proceedings surrounding the issue.

“It’s a huge victory for Iowa in the sense that this upheld over 100 years of case law that held drainage districts harmless, since they have no real power to either tax or other powers,” he says. “The argument is that they are there to simply receive and discharge water, and to hold them accountable for something they have limited control over was not deemed appropriate by the courts.”

Rozenboom says legislators will be looking at ways to target taxpayer dollars to projects to correct water quality issues in the state.