The first informational meeting was held July 7, 1977 at the Malcom Auditorium Malcom, Iowa with approximately 100 persons in attendance. At the following meeting, a board of 13 members was elected.

Poweshiek Water Association was incorporated in mid-1978. A consulting firm, Bartlett and West Engineers, Inc., of Topeka, Kansas, was retained in March, 1978, to design a system and file an application for a FmHA loan. The project was funded in April 1983. The office in Brooklyn opened in August of 1983.

The Association changed organizational status from a 504A non-profit to a 357A Public Body in January 1984. Following Iowa Code, the board size was reduced to nine at this time.  

Storage & Distribution

There are currently 13 water towers throughout our system with starage capacities: (1) 500,000 gallons-(1) 400,000 gallons- (2) 300,000 gallons-(5) 200,000 gallons-(3) 100,000 gallons-(1) 50,000 gallons. Storage capacity of the Tama treatment plant is 787,000 gallons and the South Amana Plant with currently hold 400,000 gallons.  

Today at Poweshiek Water Association

Counties served by PWA presently are: Poweshiek, Tama, Iowa, Keokuk, Mahaska, Jasper, Benton, Blackhawk, Johnson, Marshall, and Linn. 

PWA serves close to 6,200 individual meters. Communities served include Guernsey, Gibson, Vining, Luzerne, Thornburg, Searsboro, Buckingham, Dinsdale, Irving, Watkins, Barnes City, Malcom, Clutier, Hickory Hollow, Millersburg, Dysart, Brooklyn, Holiday Lake, Chelsea, Elberon, Norway, Deep River, Van Horne and Conroy.

Treatment Facility

The Poweshiek Water Association Treatment Facilityis located 3 miles south of Tama on Highway 63. This facility can pump up to 2,800,000 gallons of water per day to the system. The water from the Tama plant is lime-softened to 5 to 7 grains of hardness and the recommended level of fluoride set by the Department of Health is added to the water. PWA has eleven alluvial wells located northeast of the plant that supply our water. 

PWA has an agreement with the city of Cedar Rapids to purchase up to 1,600,000 gallons of water per day. Water purchased from Cedar Rapids is also lime-softened and is maintained at between 7 & 8 grains of hardness.

Poweshiek Water Association routinely monitors for constituents in your drinking water according to Federal and State Laws. We proudly report the results of these tests in our annual Quality on Tap Report.