Storm Lake’s Drainage District No. 13 remains at a standstill after trustees tabled a decision Monday night, awaiting clarification from Tyson Foods on what the company means by a “simple fix” for a collapsed tile near Expansion Boulevard.
District Attorney Ryan Buske has drafted a letter, giving Tyson until Feb. 6, 2026 to respond.
Trustees also approved a $25,000 preliminary survey and reclassification of the district to update boundaries and estimate future costs for landowners.
Beck Engineering’s report lays out three possible paths forward.
The first option is a repair, estimated at about $655,000, that would involve cleaning the existing tile, fixing sections as needed, and installing access points. Engineers cautioned the trustees that the true cost is unknown because much of the system is buried and undocumented.
The second option is a full urban improvement, designed to handle a five‑year storm. That plan carries a price tag of roughly $2.4 million. It would replace aging tile with new intakes at Expansion Boulevard and Radio Road, route water east through petitioners’ property, and build an open ditch connecting to the Highway 71 culvert.
The third option is an agricultural upgrade, estimated at $1.75 million. That design uses a two‑inch coefficient, a higher standard for farm drainage, offering additional capacity for petitioners while keeping costs lower than the urban plan.
At Tuesday’s weekly Buena Vista County Board of Supervisors meeting, County Drainage Engineer Brian Blomme said only 11 percent of acres and 15 percent of landowners have filed objections—well short of the 70 percent threshold needed to halt the project through a remonstrance.
Blomme raised concerns that some landowners insist they submitted letters that never appeared in the record.
Blomme also pushed back against Buske, who argued that replacing clay tile with modern PVC pipe constitutes an “improvement.”
Blomme says repairs can be done cost‑effectively without triggering the legal definition of an improvement. He welcomed the trustees’ decision to table action, but warned the district may eventually need an amendment to the engineer’s report before moving forward.
