Des Moines Water Works has asked a court to deny three northwest Iowa counties’ motion to dismiss part of the federal lawsuit the utility filed in Sioux City over nitrate pollution in rivers. The counties have claimed they are not responsible for the pollution and don’t have the power to control it. “We continue to hear the same — industrial agriculture has no responsibility for Iowa’s continuing surface water quality disaster and Des Moines Water Works should ‘go away,'” Bill Stowe, Water Works CEO and general manager, said in a statement. The utility presented 2,000 pages of evidence to support its legal argument and noted that no federal court has heard a case with these circumstances before, adding to the case’s importance. Water Works argues that drainage districts run by the three counties — Buena Vista, Sac and Calhoun — should be regulated as “point sources” of nitrate pollution under the U.S. Clean Water Act. The case was scheduled to start in August but a new date will be set at a hearing Wednesday.