(Avoca, Iowa) – Pottawattamie, Harrison, Shelby, Audubon, and Cass County residents and businesses served by Regional Water Rural Water Association, are being advised to boil their water before using it due to a problem in the distribution system resulting in a loss of pressure. The advisory was issued as a precaution until bacteria sample results are available.

Officials with the Regional Water Rural Water Association, today (Thursday), issued a recommendation for customers of their Avoca Treatment Plant, to boil water intended for drinking, or to use an alternative source of drinking water. The Advisory does not affect Underwood, McClelland, and the rural residents of these towns as they are on a different water system. The city of Exira is in an extreme conservation state until further notice.

AMU (Atlantic Municipal Utilities) water customers are NOT under the boiler order warning. AMU General Manager Steve Tjepkes, Friday, said they have received numerous calls. He wants everyone to know that AMU customers are not effected by the rural Cass County boil order.

A statement from Regional Water says there was a problem in the distribution system, and that the system lost pressure today (May 25, 2023). Due to the potential for bacterial contamination, it is recommended that the water be boiled before using for drinking or cooking or that an alternative source be used. The pressure loss is affecting over half of our system, prompting the system-wide boil advisory.

The Regional Water system is being repaired and repressurized, and bacteria samples will be collected in accordance with DNR protocol. In the meantime, residents and businesses are being notified via phone calls, website, Facebook, and through local county Emergency Management Administrators.

It is recommended to only drink the water after boiling it first.

• Bring all water to a boil, let it boil for one minute, and let it cool before using, or use bottled water.
• Boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, making ice, brushing teeth, and food preparation until further notice.
• Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.
• The water may be used for bathing and other similar purposes. If the water is colored, use an alternative source such as bottled water.”

Affected residents and businesses will be notified when the results are available, and the advisory is lifted.

For more information, please contact the Regional Water Office at 712-343-2413. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1(800) 426-4791.

When water service is restored, there may be air in your water piping and the water may be discolored. It is recommended to run the first water from a faucet that does not have an aerator screen, such as a bathtub or hose bib. Open the faucet slowly to allow the air to escape. Once the water is flowing, allow the faucet to run until it is clear. The water may be cloudy at first due to air in the water or particles that dislodged as the pipes filled with water. This should clear fairly quickly. If water is cloudy or colored throughout the house and it does not clear after allowing the water to run for several minutes, use an alternative source such as bottled water and contact the person listed above.

(Radio Iowa) – U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was in eastern Iowa Thursday, visiting two projects that have received federal grants from the infrastructure bill President Biden signed in 2021. The Eastern Iowa Airport got a $20 million grant. “The funding in this case is going to allow the team to complete a passenger terminal expansion that adds four addition passenger gates to accommodate more flights,” Buttigieg said, “improved accessibility for travelers with disabilities and more ways to fly to or from eastern Iowa with the kind of frequency that gives you more options and a good experience when you do so.”

Buttigieg, in an outdoor news conference in front of construction crews at the site, noted the Eastern Iowa Airport is located on Wright Brothers Boulevard, a reminder America ushered in the aviation age. “It’s appropriate, then, that Americans ought to have the best air travel in the world, but we’ve been slipping,” Buttigieg said. “We slipped as a country with decades of underinvestment.”

Buttigieg has been touring the country, visiting ports, bridges, bus stations and other sites that are getting infrastructure grants from the Biden Administration. Buttigieg’s second stop today is in Dubuque, at a pedestrian bridge over railroad tracks that will be a new path for walking and biking. “It’s going to make the roads safer and support jobs in that great downtown there,” Buttigieg said, “so in so many ways transportation is essential to the quality of life and economic strength and safety that we all depend on.”

Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell greats Buttigieg. (Buttigieg photo)

The Department of Transportation has so far awarded $93 million to Iowa projects being funded by the nearly two year old infrastructure law. Cities in the Cedar Rapids metro have made three unsuccessful applications to another US DOT program that awards grants to significant regional transportation projects. Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha, Robins and Linn County have been seeking federal funding for a four-lane road that would connect Interstate 380 to Highway 13. Buttigieg said his agency will work with applicants on grant requests. “Sometimes when they succeed it’s on the second, third or fourth or even more outing as they continue chiseling the project,” Buttigieg said. “…At the time I want to be transparent about just how competitive these programs are.” There were nearly 10,000 applicants for DOT RAISE grants last year and only 166 projects were approved for funding.

Buttigieg told the crowd gathered at the Eastern Iowa Airport this likely will be the busiest Memorial Day weekend for air travel since before the pandemic. Buttigieg said airlines could be grounded next month, though, if there’s no agreement to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling and federal workers in air traffic control and TSA checkpoints are furloughed. During a news conference at the airport, Buttigieg was asked about LGBTQ bills in the state legislature and he suggested Republican lawmakers have a priority problem. “Here we are in Cedar Rapids working on making life a little easier for airline passengers,” Buttigieg said, “and they’re over there in Des Moines working on making life a little harder for LGBTQ high schoolers.”

Buttigieg, who won the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2020 Caucuses, is the first openly gay candidate for president to win a state caucus or primary.

(Radio Iowa) – A University of Iowa study finds automobile insurance premiums dropped in other states after they legalized medical marijuana, suggesting that driving while high may not be as dangerous as driving drunk. Cameron Ellis, a U-I professor of finance, says they studied insurance data at the ZIP code level and found states that made medical marijuana legal between 2014 and 2019 saw premiums fall an average of 22-dollars per driver in the first year.

“In areas that had high levels of DUIs prior to medical cannabis legalization, rates fell at a much higher rate,” Ellis says, “because as bad as marijuana is for driving, alcohol is much worse, and so it’s sort of this reduction in DUIs that’s leading to the decline.” There are likely two explanations for this, he says, the first being that some of the people who were arrested for driving while impaired by alcohol simply changed their drug of choice — from alcohol to marijuana.

“But another potential one is that when you consume alcohol and marijuana together, you tend to do it at home,” Ellis says. “You don’t go smoke in a bar, you do it at home and so you’re just literally driving less while drinking, even if you’re not drinking less.” Opponents of the legalization of marijuana often argue that such a move would lead to an increase in motor vehicle accidents along with a rise in crash-related injuries and deaths. Ellis says the U-I study essentially debunks that idea, as the two drugs impair drivers in different ways.

“There’s this trope of someone’s like, ‘Oh, I’m a better driver while I’m drunk,’ but, no you’re not, but you’re really, really confident and that causes a lot of problems,” Ellis says, “whereas marijuana famously, you’re paranoid that there are cops everywhere, ‘I don’t want to get caught, I’m going to go exactly the speed limit’.” Those who are against legalizing marijuana, for recreational or medical uses, point to the harm already caused by people who drive under the influence of alcohol and argue legalizing another mind-altering chemical will lead to even more crashes, injuries and deaths.

Ellis argues that alcohol tends to make drivers more aggressive, while marijuana has a mellowing affect and makes drivers more aware of their inabilities, so they drive slower and take fewer risks. “That’s sort of the key thing of why driving while high is not nearly as dangerous as driving while drunk,” Ellis says, “though it is still very dangerous and very illegal.” The report found about 820-million dollars has been saved so far in crash-related health expenditures as a result of marijuana legalization.

Ellis says if medicinal marijuana was legalized nationally, another 320-million could be saved. The study was published by the journal Health Economics.