Mark Bennett: Questions abound on impact of water-transfer pipeline on Wabash River, environment

Sep. 27—The Wabash River flows shallow right now. Most of its valley through 19 Indiana counties lies in a state of moderate drought, as measured by the official U.S. Drought Monitor.

Even at low depth, the Wabash waters remain a muddy hue.

Likewise, the impact of a state plan to pipeline up to 100 million gallons of water daily from one of two major Wabash River aquifers near Lafayette to a high-tech industrial park 35-miles away in Boone County is murky. The yet-to-be-constructed pipeline would supply water to the 9,000-acre industrial park, known as the LEAP (a catchy acronym for Limitless Exploration Advanced Pace) Lebanon Innovation District, not only for the upcoming $3.7-billion Eli Lilly research campus, but also future investors.

The IEDC's planned pipeline also promises to allow cities and towns from Lafayette to central Indiana to use the water for previously unattainable housing and economic development projects, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

Lafayette and other river communities have lots of questions and concerns, nonetheless.

"From my perspective, I am concerned on many levels," said Brendan Kearns, a longtime Terre Haute river enthusiast and president of the Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission.

In terms of the project's effect on water availability, initial results of testing by the state-hired, Texas-based environmental and water resource consulting firm — INTERA — indicate "there is even more water available in the aquifer than was originally anticipated," according to an FAQ compiled by the IEDC.

The IEDC released an "executive summary" of those early testing results last week, with optimism.

Also noted was the pipeline's potential for "unlocking immense economic development potential in Lafayette and surrounding communities," said Erin Sweitzer, IEDC vice president of strategic external communications.

The IEDC analysis announced last week emerged from 17 exploratory boreholes drilled into the south bank of the Wabash on a 70-acre parcel six miles downstream from West Lafayette. Each was finished as a monitoring well, the IEDC said. INTERA also drilled two wells to test the Wabash Alluvial Aquifer at a constant rate for 72 hours twice, and conducted a geophysical survey to fill in data gaps from earlier testing.

Early tests showed, according to the IEDC, the underground aquifer "is well connected" to the Wabash River and that "water can move easily between" the two. The study concluded that because Lafayette-area homeowners' wells get water from the Wabash, rather than the alluvial aquifer itself, the impact would be minimal.

The preliminary upshot — the river's aquifer can adequately support the project, without hindering water availability to nearby residents. The next steps include more tests of the river-aquifer system at a second site and a conclusive study to be made public by the end of the year. The IEDC also says the findings will be reviewed by "third party" experts at Purdue, Indiana and Ohio State universities.

Questions and concerns about the plan continue, even in generally water-abundant Indiana, where an estimated 2 billion gallons of water flows through the Wabash daily.

For starters, does a river community have any say-so if a project or developer wants to build a pipeline and transfer water from that community to a different Hoosier community, or even a different state? Apparently not. A bill to regulate such basin-to-basin water transfers died in the Indiana General Assembly last winter.

West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis, a Republican finishing his fourth and final term, noted the lack of regulation.

"To be clear, it was not Tippecanoe County's idea to send our water elsewhere," Dennis said via email on Wednesday. "We want to be good partners, but we recognize that we have growth, citizens and businesses of our own who locate here because we have abundant resources. From a legal standpoint, though, we do not know if we have any power to stop this pipeline. Each state manages water rights differently, and in Indiana if you own the land, you own the water below it. There are no limits to piping that water out of state, if someone desired."

House Bill 1556, introduced in the last legislative session, would've required an Indiana Department of Natural Resources-issued permit for anyone to withdraw 10 million gallons of water or more. The bill never got out of the Indiana House Committee on Natural Resources.

The pipeline plan has rekindled awareness of the need for such legislation.

"Access to clean drinking water is increasingly becoming one of the most important issue that every community is facing," Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Democrat who represents Terre Haute and District 43 in the Indiana House, said Thursday morning by email. "Just as there are strong protections against moving water out of the Great Lakes basin, Indiana needs to put in place protections for all of our water basins.

"This removal from the Wabash River basin should serve as a wake up call to our Legislature," Pfaff added. "We need to move swiftly to put protections in place before we see water pipeline projects that move this important resource out of state or even out of the Midwest."

Hoosier Environmental Council Executive Director Sam Carpenter and Environmental Health and Water Policy Director Indra Frank said the nonprofit advocacy group "is certainly glad the IEDC is doing a study before proceeding" with the pipeline, and that its findings will be reviewed by a third party. But they also pointed out the initial results involved just three days of testing on two different occasions.

"That's very different from 100 million gallons of water 365 days a year," Frank said by phone Thursday.

The Council also has concerns about the impact of such a daily water transfer during drought, and would like to see the study take into account the plan's ecological impact on wildlife and its potential to deplete wetlands. Carpenter said the Council also is concerned about the project's carbon footprint, in terms of the power necessary to operate such a large pipeline daily, and whether clean, renewable energy will be used.

The Council also raised questions about where wastewater from the LEAP site will be discharged. Such a heavy influx could affect the receiving water basin.

On Wednesday, Sweitzer from the IEDC said, "Nothing has been decided about wastewater, as we are still in the early phases of design and planning." Also, it is too early to determine the pipeline's cost and who will pay that cost, Sweitzer said.

Many manufacturing facilities are located on rivers, where the water is used, treated and returned to that same river basin. With LEAP, it appears the water will be drawn from the Wabash aquifer and transferred to a different basin, where it will be used, treated and discharged.

Wouldn't it be more feasible and environmentally sound to simply put a facility like LEAP in a Wabash River community, where the water could be drawn, used, treated and returned to the same river basin?

Sweitzer of the IEDC explained that Lebanon sits at the midpoint of a 70-mile technology corridor extending from Indianapolis to Purdue University. It is proximate to three highway interchanges and 30 miles from a large Fed Ex hub and Indianapolis International Airport.

"The LEAP Research and Innovation District elevated and accelerated an existing and well-documented need for increased water access in central Indiana," Sweitzer said. "Planning for water and other resources needed as our state grows has been discussed and examined for decades. Lebanon currently has the water to support Lilly's $3.7 billion project in the LEAP district. The IEDC is implementing the necessary steps now to ensure the site can and will be able to support current and future residents and business owners in the surrounding area."

In Terre Haute, Brendan Kearns sees areas of concern about the pipeline, based on his many years of studying the Wabash. He cited a "lack of transparency" from the IEDC, and said the proposed transfer of water could affect counties both downstream and upstream of Lafayette. Those communities already are in the midst of a second year of low-water levels, he explained.

"For the communities downstream that rely on the Wabash River to replenish the aquifers used for agriculture and industry, this should be a major concern," Kearns said Wednesday.

In his role as president of the Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission, that group of representatives from all 19 river counties is working on an "education session" to explain the aquifers in the Wabash basin.

Given this situation, many Hoosiers will want to learn more, too.

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.