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For 20 days beginning May 27, Bettendorf continuously ran 10 pumps along its riverfront to flush 448 million gallons of sewage-contaminated water into the Mississippi River.

The latest Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) "Event" was again the result of rain and flood water clogging the main sewer interceptor line to the Davenport Waste Water Treatment Plant.

To prevent the treatment plant was being inundated with the huge flows and avoid sewage back-ups to businesses and homes along the Bettendorf/Riverdale riverfront, gates to the main sewer line were closed May 27.

Bettendorf, Riverdale and Panorama Park sewage was flushed into the Mississippi River between April 29 and May 9.

The City of Bettendorf pumped 179 million gallons of untreated sewage mixed with stormwater runoff into the river, according to reports filed with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Neither the city or the state estimate how much actual sewage is pumped directly into the river as a result of such "Sanitary Sewer Overflows" (SSO's).

Iowa's largest utility MidAmerican Energy got $308 million in state and federal tax credits in 2018 for generating wind energy, then hid behind a front organization called the REAL Coalition to push legislation to add a tax on customers who install rooftop solar panels.

The utility admits it is a member of the shadowy lobbying organization. However, that's about the only thing the privately held utility – part of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway run by Warren Buffett – will disclose about the secretive lobbying effort.