Governor Kim Reynolds said it is critical to ensure Iowa has sufficient electricity and modern water treatment facilities to support business expansion.

“That’s something we need to figure out especially for rural areas in Iowa,” Reynolds said in a recent interview with Radio Iowa. “We have a lot of capacity in rural Iowa, but if the loading capacity or the water treatment capacity isn’t there, it’s difficult for the existing companies to expand or think about relocating.”

Water treatment plants are expensive. For larger communities, a plant that can process an average of 10 million gallons a day can cost $12 million. Reynolds said the costs for smaller communities are less, but cannot be easily borne by residents, who would pay higher utility bills. “The population numbers are not where they need to be to sustain this,” the governor said.

The State Revolving Fund provides low-interest loans to communities to finance drinking water systems, water treatment plants and sewers, but Reynolds said she has asked the director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority to review the range of state incentives available – and what might be proposed for the future.

“We’re in the process of looking at that and thinking about how we can project that for the next 10 to 20 years,” Reynolds said, “and how we can get ahead of that and stay competitive as companies consider locating and expanding in Iowa.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced that a dozen drinking water systems in Iowa need upgrades to remove so-called “perpetual chemicals” associated with sites where firefighters used foam to quickly extinguish fires.