Benefited Water District Plan for Main Extensions

It is more or less common practice for municipally owned water works to provide service outside the city, but the entire expense of the construction and maintenance of mains is often borne by the property owners benefited, and, if fire protection is provided, it has to be at a rate fixed by the municipality supplying the service. Also, in order not to discriminate against water users within the corporate limits, who are called upon to finance the utility's main plant and properties, it is the usual custom to charge more for water, on a gallonage basis, outside the city. Although small areas may be handled by making direct contacts with individuals, it often becomes practical, when large sections outside the corporate limits are to be served, to establish "benefited water districts." Since 1924 Iowa has had a law providing for the establishment of such districts, but not until the statute was amended and rewritten in 1939 was it very much used. Eight benefited water districts have been approved by the supervisors in Polk County, Iowa, all to be supplied from the system of the Des Moines Water Works. Five of these districts were formed in 1949, while the other three date from before the war, which virtually stopped new main construction everywhere. Chapter 357 of the 1946 Code of Iowa provides that :