Boone County’s massive 9,000-acre LEAP Lebanon Innovation District isn’t solely about jobs, though it is expected to attract industries providing employment for thousands.
Nor is it all about the medical research and production expected from Eli Lilly and Co., Roche and other firms set to locate at the site off I-65.
It has also become a sore point, particularly related to providing utilities to an area that has no current resource to generate the water needed by the LEAP District.
To that end, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which initially bought the site for development, proposed a 50-mile pipeline from the Wabash River aquifer near Lafayette to Lebanon.
Following outcries by residents and the Citizens Action Coalition (CAC), the pipeline is on hold until a water study is completed by the pro-development Indiana Finance Authority. Local landowners have already speculated how one-sided that report might be.
In addition, the issue is about the lack of residential input into the project. Many local landowners believe that Lilly wielded its influence to obtain zoning approvals and nearly $980 million (estimated by the CAC) from the state in development incentives.
Frustration over the process has led to seven bills in the Indiana General Assembly.
Some of the bills are unwieldy, but two would help Hoosiers gain more input.
Senate Bill 295, authored by State Sen. Brian Buchanan, a Republican from Lebanon, seeks to have two legislators appointed as nonvoting, advisory members to the IEDC board.
The IEDC, before purchasing land in a county that exceeds 100 acres, would be required to first give notice to a county or municipality, or both, in which the land is located.
On Jan. 25 the bill, supported by CAC, passed 10-0 in the Senate’s Commerce and Technology Committee, which Buchanan chairs.
Senate Bill 249, authored by state Sen. Spencer Deery, a Republican from West Lafayette, is specifically aimed at the project by limiting the amount of water used by a facility with wells when the facility would draw 10 million gallons or more a day to an area at least 20 miles away from the wells.
Public notice and a peer-reviewed feasibility study would have to be provided by the applicant in order to receive a permit from the state’s Natural Resources Commission. Two public hearings would be required by the commission.
The bills add needed layers of public involvement and government transparency. Their fates, however, are up against hearing deadlines in the legislature.
Even if passed, the bills would not solve the dilemma facing farmers, landowners with wells, small town water utilities or the city of Lafayette, which has passed a resolution objecting to the pipeline. The LEAP District has to get water from somewhere. Construction is too far along to stop the project.
The predicament has tangential components of job growth and medical advances. The Boone County development underscores the need for Hoosiers to have stronger say in preventing water scarcity. Pro-business state agencies should never be the only decision maker.
Local voices need to be heard when local water management is at stake.
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