“Fun on Purpose” was had on the White River between Yorktown and Daleville in 2023. The fun was a canoe race. The purpose was to present the White River Alliance’s first-ever White River Report Card, which looked at the overall health of the watershed based on factors including the presence of aquatic life and changes in wetlands. The local watershed received an “F” in the category of wetland change, a metric measuring the percentage change in wetland area. File photo | The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON — With some expecting the Indiana General Assembly to begin discussions on a statewide comprehensive water plan during the upcoming legislative session, advocates say there’s more to consider.
The idea of a comprehensive water plan recently made headlines after the Indiana Chamber of Commerce recommended its adoption in a report earlier this year.
Water planning discussions have become prominent as plans continue to move forward on the LEAP District in Boone County, which calls for millions of gallons of water to be piped into the area to sustain the industrial project.
The LEAP project has raised concerns among some local residents who have openly wondered if there would be enough water to sustain farming operations and other infrastructure.
Maria Jose Iturbide-Chang, water policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, believes residents’ worries are justified, but said action can be taken to ensure Hoosiers have water for years to come.
These actions, she said, begin with protecting and sustaining wetlands, which capture significant amounts of rainwater.
“Even though we see isolated wetlands and we think that they’re not important, they have their ecological importance,” she said.
“(Preserving wetlands) promotes aquifer recharge because until now, we are just extracting water from the aquifers (through tap water and other systems) and we have not given back to the aquifer the amount of water that we have extracted,” Iturbide-Chang added.
A wetland is defined as “an area of land in which water covers the soil year-round or at varying periods of time during the year,” according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
One acre of wetland can store up to 38,000 bathtubs full of water, with a large bathtub holding 40 gallons of water, according to information from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Water stored in wetlands can be filtered through the ground and into an aquifer, which water faucets tap into.
Iturbide-Chang believes this could be beneficial as Indiana’s water has some of the highest concentration of pollutants in the United States.
She cited data from a report commissioned by the Environmental Integrity Project, a non-profit specializing in environmental law, in 2022. It designated Indiana as the top state for polluted waterways.
Wetlands are also important parts of watersheds, areas in which all water drains into a common waterway.
They filter nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen, which, if left unchecked, would leak into the common body of water, resulting in excessive algae and other plants.
“When these algae and plants die, oxygen in the water is used during the decomposition process,” researchers with the Conservation Technology Information Center wrote in a recent report.
“This can result in oxygen deprivation which may lead to fish kills.”
Residents in Clark County in southern Indiana saw this firsthand in 2018 as hundreds of fish at the Speed Golf Course in Sellersburg were found dead. Officials believed it to be the result of increased algae, the Jeffersonville News and Tribune reported.
Aquatic life is one indicator of a healthy watershed. Others include wildlife diversity, environmental burden, and wetland change.
The White River Alliance gave the local watershed an “F” in the category of wetland change, a metric measuring the percentage change in wetland area, in its 2023 White River Report Card.
Advocates point to similar data as evidence that wetlands are increasingly threatened.
Wetlands are afforded degrees of protection based on classes. Human disturbance is one of the key factors separating the classes; Class I consists of wetlands that have been significantly disturbed by humans, to the point where water saturation is altered; Class III consists of isolated wetlands that are of paramount ecological importance, including acid bogs and cypress swamps.
The Indiana General Assembly recently repealed Class I permitting requirements in House Bill 1383, which was signed into law in July. Developers, Iturbide-Chang said, now have significantly fewer restrictions in operating in or near Class I wetlands.
She also noted that some Class II wetlands have been reclassified as Class I, making more wetlands available for developers.
She lamented the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ “mitigation bank” program, which allows developers to drain wetlands for a fee.
“This developer pays for DNR to invest in another area and create a wetland,” she explained, a process which can take a few years to complete.
Iturbide-Chang said that as of Thursday, the Hoosier Environmental Council did not have any alternatives to present to legislators during the 2025 session.
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