Letter to the Editor
‘Maybe’ to tax
I thought the local-option sales tax was a great way for us to build up some money to protect our community against future floods. Then I read that Coralville would use the money to improve floodwalls. Now, I hesitate to support the tax, simply because floodwalls are not the answer to the problem. Walls do not remove the water, they simply relocate it; the water still has to go somewhere. There is a chance that the floodwater will spill over the walls, despite making them taller. Even if the walls are successful in protecting Coralville, they could cause even more devastating damage to the towns downstream. And in the meantime, they can provide a false sense of security, as was witnessed on the Coralville Strip last year.
I think the best way to deal with future floods is to re-create some of the wetlands we took from our community. Wetlands are nature’s way of holding excess water in the roots of the plants and deep in the soil, preventing the rivers from swelling to the point they did last year. We are having floods more often now because of the development that has happened in areas that used to have wetlands. I suggest voting yes on this tax only if the city of Coralville will consider a more sustainable solution to flood protection by including the creation of more wetlands rather than floodwalls.
Risa Dotson Eicke
Iowa City
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