Iowa Code

Iowa Code § 468.149 (2026)

Obstructing or damaging

✓ current as of July 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section IA-LEGlegis.iowa.gov JustiaTitle on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

1. A person is guilty of a serious misdemeanor if, without legal authority, the person willfully does any of the following:

a. Diverts, obstructs, impedes, or fills up any ditch, drain, or watercourse.

b. Breaks down or injures any levee or the bank of any settling basin, established, constructed, and maintained under any provision of law.

c. Obstructs or engages in travel or agricultural practices upon the improvement or rights-of-way of a levee or drainage district which the governing body thereof has, by resolution, determined to be injurious to such improvement or to interfere with its proper preservation, operation, or maintenance, and has prohibited.

2. Any unlawful act described in subsection 1 is a nuisance and may be abated.

3. A governing body shall have the power to repair any ditch, drain, or watercourse, or any levee or bank of any settling basin, damaged by any person or persons in violation of a resolution of the governing body, after three days’ notice to such person or persons to make such repair. In the event that there is a failure to make the repair, the expense of the repair shall be assessed to the person or persons and shall be certified and collected in the same manner as other taxes. [C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §7580; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §455.160] 89 Acts, ch 126, §2 CS89, §468.149 2016 Acts, ch 1073, §132 Nuisances in general, chapter 657 \n

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 2 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1994–2025 · leading case: Hicks v. Franklin Cnty. Auditor, 514 N.W.2d 431 (Iowa 1994).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Hicks v. Franklin Cnty. Auditor, 514 N.W.2d 431 (Iowa 1994). · cites it 2× “886 , 888 (1918); see also Iowa Code § 468.149 . Several plaintiffs claim a right to damages not only for the expansion of the drainage easement, but also for the taking of all of the land for the drainage right-of-way.”

Martin Robinson, Paula Robinson, Tom Robinson, & Laura Robinson v. Cent. Iowa Power Coop.; Coggon Solar, LLC; Kenneth M. Ludolph; & Deanice R. Ludolph (Iowa 2025). · cites it 5× “See Iowa Code § 468.149 (2) (“Any 21 unlawful act described in subsection 1 is a nuisance .”

— Iowa Code § 468.149(1)(a) — 1 case

Martin Robinson, Paula Robinson, Tom Robinson, & Laura Robinson v. Cent. Iowa Power Coop.; Coggon Solar, LLC; Kenneth M. Ludolph; & Deanice R. Ludolph (Iowa 2025). “See Iowa Code § 468.149 (2) (“Any 21 unlawful act described in subsection 1 is a nuisance .”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.