Mark Bennett: Water pipeline debate a reminder of Wabash River's value

Aug. 31—A proposal to transfer up to 100 million gallons of water daily from a Wabash River aquifer in Tippecanoe County to a massive, high-tech industrial park in Boone County, via a 35-mile pipeline, has already accomplished one thing.

It proves the Wabash River is still a valuable natural resource.

Terre Haute residents have gained an awareness of the river's potential for recreation and tourism throughout the 21st century. Public and private projects like the Wabashiki Fish and Wildlife Area, the pedestrian connector over the wetlands between Terre Haute and West Terre Haute, the Wabashiki and National Road Heritage trails, the conversion of an abandoned factory into the RiverFront Lofts, and riverfront additions such as the Indiana State University Gibson Track and Field Complex and The Mill outdoor music venue are local examples.

Those enhancements, as well as Terre Haute's 2013 Year of the River, have revived an appreciation for the Wabash. For decades prior, the river got overlooked, neglected and abused as little more than a handy giant sewer. This community understands it better today.

Indeed, the river's water itself is an essential resource for wildlife and humans. And it's heavily sought-after by industries built by mankind.

It's up to Hoosiers to make sure industrial demand doesn't compromise the needs of people, wildlife and our ecosystems.

The LEAP project in Boone County involves a 9,000-acre industrial park as part of the state's plans for a high-tech corridor along Interstate 65 from Indianapolis to Lafayette, the Indiana Capitol Chronicle reported last month.

Water isn't as plentiful there, thus the Indiana Economic Development Corporation is proposing a pipeline to draw 10 million to 100 million gallons of water daily from the Wabash Alluvial Aquifer in Tippecanoe County to the proposed facility near Lebanon.

Such a withdrawal could total up to 36.5 billion gallons of water annually.

Preliminary test wells drilled along the Wabash this summer indicate the aquifer can sustain such a transfer of water, a state-hired water expert and an IEDC official said at last month's 2023 Indiana Water Summit, the Chronicle reported. But further testing is necessary and ongoing.

"Final results of both the water and engineering studies are scheduled to be done by the end of the year," Erin Sweitzer, IEDC spokesperson, told the Tribune-Star via email Thursday.

The proposed Lafayette-to-Lebanon pipeline has raised lots of questions and concerns from local officials and residents in Lafayette, and elsewhere.

Could the transfer of that much water from a Wabash River aquifer affect drinking water supplies for Lafayette, which gets its water from another Wabash-related aquifer?

Would an extended drought deplete that area's water needs for humans and wildlife? Indiana doesn't regulate such basin-to-basin transfers of water, except in a small portion of the state covered by the Great Lakes Compact; so could additional pipelines be created by low-water communities to get water from other Wabash River communities like Terre Haute?

"It is absolutely of concern on multiple fronts," said Paul Doss, professor of geology, hydrogeologist and environmental geologist at the University of Southern Indiana. (Doss pointed out that he's not been fully briefed on the specific LEAP project.)

"When you get right down to it, the alluvial aquifer system along the Wabash River, particularly up in central Indiana, it's got a lot of water," Doss said Tuesday by phone. In fact, the Wabash sends more than 2 billion gallons of water daily through its Terre Haute stretch, U.S. Geological Survey data show.

Lots of living things depend on that water, though.

"That water sustains flow in the Wabash, it sustains all of the ecosystems that make up the Wabash corridor, and obviously it sustains a lot of the human population that depend on that water for its drinking water supply," Doss said.

Also, this is a transfer of water that won't go back into the Wabash River basin. By contrast, water withdrawn by a riverside industry gets used, treated at a wastewater facility and then returned to the same river. In this case, this transfer will take water from the Wabash to be used and released into a non-Wabash area, possibly Eagle Creek Reservoir or a White River tributary, the Chronicle reported.

That influx of water could be a problem for the receiving waterway, Doss said.

This issue of climate change is significant, too. An investigation by the New York Times last month found that many of the aquifers that supply 90% of America's water systems are being severely depleted. One factor is the lack of regulation in many states on over-pumping groundwater resources, the Times reported. Another factor is climate change, forcing communities to overstress aquifers.

Even in water-blessed Indiana, an extended drought could be a problem if the pipeline happens.

"On any one given day, that aquifer system may very well be able to support that [pipeline transfer] without putting at risk the river, the associated riparian, the associated river corridor ecosystems, as well as public water supply," Doss said. "My perspective comes in that, we are without question — and very rigorously displayed — in a period of changing climate and changing extremes. So, if we were to get into an extended extreme drought condition, I don't know if that kind of a withdrawal and transfer could have measurable impact."

The IEDC's extended study and testing will consider drought possibilities, Sweitzer said in her email. "Yes, possibilities of extreme drought are being accounted for in the water assessment," she said Thursday.

The Hoosier Environmental Council also has concerns about the project.

"Like everyone else, we're waiting to see what that [IEDC] study shows," Indra Frank, environmental health and water policy director of the HEC, said by phone Wednesday, "but we're concerned about the effect on the Wabash."

The absence of regulations on such water transfers means developers could decide to pump water from aquifers along the Terre Haute portion of the Wabash to an industrial project in a low-water region 100 miles away.

"That's what's going on right now," Doss said. "Boone County doesn't have enough water to supply this development that they want, so they went looking, and they went over to the Wabash Valley [in Lafayette]."

As the HEC's Frank put it, "We have a very open water law." The need for legislation came up at last month's water summit. A bill regulating transfers of 10 million gallons or more daily got nowhere in the last session of the Indiana General Assembly.

The Hoosier Environmental Council is also concerned such large transfers could damage Indiana's rapidly disappearing wetlands, Frank said.

The Lafayette-to-Lebanon pipeline project deserves attention in other Wabash River communities, like this one.

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