Picture this: You pick up a guest from the Des Moines International Airport. Maybe this person has never been to Greater Des Moines. Maybe you are trying to recruit them here for an employment opportunity, or to establish a stronger business relationship or even consummate an investment opportunity. On the way to downtown, you tell them about the recent momentum of the region: strong population growth, national recognition as a place poised for continued success following the pandemic, our ability to draw major national events, and promises to visit the must-see amenities follow.

As you travel past the Wakonda Golf Club, home of the Principal Charity Classic, you continue past Gray’s Lake and the Kruidenier Trail pedestrian bridge, past the 1,500-acre Water Works Park and the new Lauridsen Amphitheater. You turn right onto Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and the impressive skyline comes into view. But then, like so many times before, the conversation turns to the abandoned, dilapidated Dico Superfund site to the south.

Read the full article HERE.