West Des Moines Water Works and the city of Waukee will vote today to launch a study looking into how they would keep taps running in the growing suburbs, as Urbandale continues work on its own treatment plant.

That has added fuel to a somewhat dry but important debate over regional government. Des Moines Water Works chief Bill Stowe has promoted the idea of a regional water plant that he says will save both Des Moines and suburban residents money.

Stowe and his counterparts at area systems have spent months and thousands of dollars through the Central Iowa Regional Drinking Water Commission to study whether it makes sense to build a regional water plant. At the same time, there has been talk of adding suburban representation on the Des Moines Water Works board, which now is appointed by the Des Moines mayor and is made up entirely of Des Moines residents.

That study by Black & Veatch has left some suburban communities with a sense of sticker shock over the potential for dramatic rate increases.

As Stowe points out, most of Des Moines Water Works customers live outside Des Moines. But because of discounts offered to the suburbs for wholesale water, most of the revenue comes from Des Moines.

Waukee and West Des Moines Water Works would share the cost of an $84,000 study to determine whether the Raccoon River aquifer can supply enough water to meet the West Des Moines utility’s needs, with Waukee on board.

Engineering firm Veenstra & Kimm Inc. would do the work.

Waukee currently buys all of its water – an average of 1.1 million gallons a day, 3.1 million gallons on peak days and a capacity for 3.6 million gallons a day – from Des Moines Water Works. West Des Moines Water Works buys about 30 percent of its water from the Des Moines utility, which was created in the 19th century by Frederick M. Hubbell, later sold to the city of Des Moines and then spun off as an independent entity.

Waukee City Administrator Tim Moerman said it is the future that is of concern in his city.

“With our city growing, we need to increase our water supply,” Moerman said. “This is just an exploration. All options are wide open.”

City officials have had a “conceptual” discussion with Des Moines Water Works. That was the first step, Moerman said. The reply was that the utility would need to expand its treatment capacity. Waukee would be expected to share in those costs.

Step 2 was to turn to West Des Moines Water Works and determine whether it has a sufficient source of water to serve the 65,000 residents of West Des Moines as well as the 18,000 residents of Waukee. The answer is that it does not.

As a result, the plan is to hire Veenstra & Kimm to determine whether sufficient water can be found in an area that stretches north from the Raccoon River and west from Interstate 35 toward Van Meter. The study will launch in September and should be completed by Jan. 31.

“We believe we will find that the water is available,” said Diana Wilson, general manager of West Des Moines Water Works.

In a study last year, Veenstra & Kimm determined that the West Des Moines water utility would have to tap into new sources of water by 2018 to meet peak demands that occur during the driest days of summer, Wilson said.

Stowe said he welcomes that study because he thinks it will show the West Des Moines utility and Waukee that it would make more financial sense to work with Des Moines Water Works to boost capacity at the Des Moines utility. Stowe met with Urbandale Mayor Robert Andeweg Monday in hopes to slow down Urbandale’s work on a proposed water plant so other options can be considered.

“Once you start the Balkanization, it would undercut the economies of scale” that would come from a regional plant, Stowe said. “I think we could end up fighting over the same source water.”

The Des Moines utility is about nine months away from receiving its own report from consultants HDR Inc. on future water demand.

Urbandale and Ankeny are Des Moines Water Works’ biggest customers, after Des Moines. West Des Moines is next.

Also Tuesday, former Des Moines Water Works chief L.D. McMullen spoke about water supply issues privately to groups that included the Iowa Partnership for Clean Water, whose supporters have included Des Moines Councilwoman Christine Hensley and Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett. Both have been very critical of Stowe over Water Works’ federal lawsuit against three northwest Iowa counties over nitrate pollution. Hensley’s group, which had another recent meeting to debate the wisdom of a regional treatment plant, supports voluntary conservation measures to fight pollution while Stowe believes it is time for regulations.

Business Record’s request to attend McMullen’s presentation was denied.

Stowe points out the regional sewage treatment plant has sidestepped political disagreements, adding that he personally would favor a more regional Water Works board. He added that Des Moines city officials and Water Works board members don’t necessarily share that view.

The joint study with West Des Moines Water Works and the city of Waukee should not be viewed as an effort to scuttle any attempts to create a regional water treatment and distribution system, Wilson said.

“Our board’s responsibility is to make sure we have planning in place, and do so in responsible way. No step we have taken to date has taken place without consideration being given to entering into a regional production system,” she said. “We are not doing anything to make that more difficult to obtain.”

However, suburbs also are taking into account other studies that suggest it will be increasingly more expensive to buy water from the Des Moines utility, Wilson said.

“We have a convergence of various issues,” she said. “We have the fact that data suggests our water consumption will at some point in the near future exceed what we have available. In combination with that we are looking at increased costs to purchase water from Des Moines, and overall we are wanting a bit more control or a say in how that water is produced and how those costs and rates are figured. There is a desire to have a little more say and control.”

West Des Moines Water Works conducted a separate study in 2014 that supported the need to find water source and treatment options beyond its current assets and purchase arrangements. Most of its water – 70 percent – is pulled from three deep wells and 19 shallow wells and is treated under state and federal regulations.