The Des Moines and West Des Moines water works will hold public input sessions later this week on the proposed formation of a regional drinking water system after a third draft of the agreement was released.

The two agencies and the Urbandale Water Utility released the final draft of the agreement on Sept. 18 and announced they will begin holding public input sessions on the draft agreement on Thursday.

West Des Moines Water Works will hold its meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Valley Junction Activity Center, 217 Fifth St. Des Moines Water Works will hold its public meeting at 6 p.m. at the South Side Library, 1111 Porter Ave., Des Moines.

Further meetings to learn more about the agreement and the proposed regional water utility will be announced by each agency.

The third draft of the agreement has been shared with 13 potential members, who include municipal water departments, independent water works and rural water utilities.

Ted Corrigan, CEO and general manager of Des Moines Water Works, said establishing a regional entity will allow water utilities in the metro to collaborate on addressing challenges in quantity and quality of water as the region grows.

“The formation of CIWW [Central Iowa Water Works] allows for effective planning and management of our water resources, which will help ensure our shared water system provides safe, sufficient and affordable water today and into the future,” he said in a release.

Discussions about developing a regional drinking water authority have been ongoing for more than a decade, becoming more serious and productive among the three board-governed water utilities in 2020.

Christina Murphy, general manager of West Des Moines Water Works, said water is an essential resource that the metro needs to “grow and thrive.”

“As we look to the future, we are facing many of the same challenges, and we have a fiduciary obligation to our customers to ensure ample water today and tomorrow,” she said in the release. “Collaborating on CIWW gives us more tools and opportunities for the future.”

CIWW would not replace or eliminate the water boards or water departments within each community, according to the proposed agreement. Each community would supply water it purchases from CIWW to its individual customers, set its own water rates, operate and maintain its local distribution system (mains and water towers), and provide all of its own customer service.

The governing agency of Central Iowa Water Works will work together to manage the growth of the water system. Each founding member will have a seat on the CIWW governing board.

Dale Acheson, general manager of the Urbandale Water Utility, said that collaboration will be critical to the growth of the region.

“The more we can work together to avoid costly duplication in water source development and treatment plant expansions, the better we can focus on growth and resiliency for individual communities as well as the entire region,” he said in the release.

In addition to Des Moines, West Des Moines and Urbandale, the potential members that have been involved in the talks include Ankeny, Bondurant, Clive, Grimes, Johnston, Polk City, Waukee, the Warren Water District and the Xenia Rural Water District.

Those entities will review the final draft agreement and decide whether to support it. The goal is to approve the agreement by early 2024.

Earlier this year, Corrigan said signing the agreement is only the first step in the process toward creating a regional entity, and that it could take a year or longer before all the organizations’ assets are joined and that a regional utility would likely not become operational until the first half of 2025.