RIVER STEM
  Raccoon River
  Buena Vista County
  200 miles +/-
  Joins the Des Moines River in the city of Des Moines

  Middle Raccoon
  Carroll County
  76 miles +/-
  Joins the Raccoon near Van Meter

  South Raccoon
  Guthrie County
  50 miles +/-
  Joins the Middle Raccoon near Redfield

• 3,600 square miles / 2.3 million acres
• 74% of the land area is farmed; corn / soybeans on 1.7 million acres
• 47 registered feedlots
• 127 unregistered feedlots
• 54 permitted animal feeding operations
• 40 municipal wastewater treatment plant

Every year, Des Moines Water Works treats about 15 billion gallons of water from the Raccoon River and the shallow groundwater wells heavily influenced by it.

Water sourced from the Raccoon is consumed by approximately 500,000 people — around 17% of Iowa's population. In the Upper Midwest, only Lake Michigan, the Mississippi River, and the Missouri River supply water to more people from a surface water resource.

It is a critical water resource.