This graphic shows where groundwater levels are going down and going up across Indiana. Indiana uses much of its groundwater for public, agricultural and industrial water use. It’s hard to quantify because of the complexity of the many aquifer systems in Indiana. Graphic produced by Purdue University’s Institute for a Sustainable Future
Gov. Eric Holcomb announced “immediate actions” Monday regarding a water supply study related to the LEAP innovation district in Boone County.
Photo courtesy of Dave Bangert
•
•
RENSSELAER — In 2012, wells went dry in the small town of Parr.
Indiana was suffering an extreme drought, requiring farmers to irrigate more farmland. Some pulled enough water from the aquifer to drain the nearby residential wells.
In Parr, located about 55 miles northwest of Lafayette in Jasper County, more than a dozen people reported their wells stopped working, prompting an investigation by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
That year, the agency determined irrigation systems or other facilities that pull significant amounts of groundwater had impacted around 45 domestic wells across the state.
Indiana law gave those large water users every right to do it. That’s because the state’s approach to water use is simple: Your land, your water. No questions asked.
A DANGEROUS ‘LEAP’
A decade ago, the drought highlighted how that policy can fail. The DNR only has the authority to respond to water conflicts after the damage has been done and heavy users have lowered an aquifer enough to dry up neighboring wells.
Today, the controversial LEAP Lebanon Innovation District development is again spotlighting how Indiana’s hands-off approach can lead to a free-for-all water grab, argued Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, the state’s oldest and largest consumer and environmental advocacy organization.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation earlier this year proposed diverting up to 100-million gallons of water daily from an aquifer along the Wabash River in Lafayette to Lebanon.
The pipe would extend around 35 miles to the 9,000-acre area that officials hope will attract industries such as microchip and semiconductor manufacturing, both of which require huge amounts of clean water. The state’s push initially drew shock and outrage from Lafayette officials and residents, who worry about the impact of pumping so much water from the region’s underground aquifer. That concern rapidly spread to other cities and towns along the Wabash River that also see the state’s proposal as a threat to their water supply. Ten communities so far have publicly criticized the proposal.
That includes Terre Haute, which in December passed a resolution calling for an independent third-party study and public hearings on the potential impact of the project on downstream communities.
“I think that one thing that this whole situation illustrates is that we have some work to do in Indiana on water rights and who gets them, what they mean, how durable they are,” said Terre Haute City Councilman Todd Nation during a meeting.
In response, Gov. Eric Holcomb a nnounced last month that the Indiana Finance Authority will assume oversight of a water supply study connected to the development. Holcomb has also asked the authority to bring in more water monitoring devices for a broader study of north-central Indiana’s water supply.
Many still remain critical of the finance authority study and want an independent, outside group to investigate the project.
“It’s a little bit of the wild, wild west here, and I think our policy – or lack of policy – really has been exposed through this whole effort,” Olson said.
‘NO PROTECTION’
In reality, under Indiana’s current laws, the state isn’t required to do the study and has the legal authority to simply take the water if officials decided to ignore public dissent.
That’s something two state lawmakers want to change during next year’s legislative session.
Sen. Spencer Deery and Rep. Sharon Negele, Republicans who both represent Lafayette, are authoring companion bills that will likely require large water transfers from one aquifer to another to receive permits, undergo independent studies and submit to ongoing monitoring.
The amount of water currently being considered for permitting is 10-million gallons a day, Deery said. The proposed bill, he explained, aims in part to protect landowners whose wells could be impacted by those kinds of large water transfers. “There’s no protection in Indiana code for them,” he said. “They are out of luck.” On the other hand, the legislation aims not to be so heavy handed that it hampers economic development, he noted. “We don’t want to do anything that’s going to create a regulatory burden that we regret,” Deery said. “But when you have a near-nothing policy right now, there’s a long way to go before that gets to be a problem.”
Rep. Negele argued Indiana hasn’t pursued meaningful water regulations because the state has the resource in abundant supply. But the economic development corporation’s proposal of piping 100-million gallons from her district to Lebanon was a wakeup call.
“It’s a shocking number,” she said. “I had to dive deep into understanding our current water laws, and what I discovered is we don’t really have great water laws.”
Deery said they hope the proposed legislation will provide some initial guidelines on water transfers like the one proposed for the LEAP district, but lawmakers need to have more long-term discussions on how best to handle future water use.
“A real nerve has been struck as citizens recognize that there isn’t any objective authority saying this is a good project or this isn’t a good project,” he said. “It just makes sense that we would want to fix that before we get too far down the road on any projects.”
IGNORING THE EXPERTS
State agencies, study committees and conservation groups for more than a decade have called on lawmakers to implement water policies to ensure Indiana has an adequate supply to meet future demand.
For more than a decade, those calls have been ignored.
A report by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in 2013 suggested a water management plan that could determine whether water conservation, an aggressive leak detection program or water reuse could supply additional needed water. The study was commissioned by the General Assembly.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce the next year echoed the call for a statewide water resource management plan in its own 92-page report arguing for more oversight.
No management plan has yet been implemented.
A report issued last year by a study committee determined the state needs to preserve its wetland, which help mitigate flooding and improve overall water quality.
That committee was created by lawmakers the same year they voted to do the exact opposite and strip nearly all protections for wetlands – 85% of which have already been destroyed compared to a century ago.
No protections have been put back in place.
Todd Royer, a water expert at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said that kind of legislation shows the disconnect lawmakers have with the basic water-management principals needed to create good policy.
“You really can’t say you’re concerned about water availability and also that we don’t need to protect wetlands,” he said. “Those are sort of diametrically opposed positions, and politicians hold diametrically opposed positions all the time. But it doesn’t make sense.”
WATER WARS
The lack of action comes as more manufacturers and industries require large amounts of groundwater, which is cleaner than surface water and needed for many high-tech facilities producing things like microchips.
Now, the lack of oversight combined with water-guzzling projects like the Lebanon LEAP district are “fomenting water wars between communities and regions,” according to a study published in December by the Citizen Action Coalition.
“Ignoring previous studies with respect to the limitation on water resources and sound proposals for developing a rational water policy … will ultimately diminish water resources and increase costs to ratepayers,” the report argues.
Keith Cherkauer, director Purdue University’s Indiana Water Resources Research Center, said “war is a pretty emotional term,” but agreed that communities are facing serious conflicts over water usage without a thought-out management plan.
Those conflicts are only set to deepen as climate change is already causing drier summers and prolonged droughts across Indiana. That will lead to smaller underground aquifers at the same time more irrigation will be needed for crops, Cherkauer explained.
“Now, we’re all competing for water,” he said. “You can call that a war, but it’s really the point when people are going to be mad.”
Other Midwestern states have made substantial investments to monitor and manage their fresh water resources, according to a report published in 2016 by the Conservation Law Center. Indiana is set to lose a “competitive advantage” if lawmakers don’t commit to active water stewardship, the study asserts.
That stewardship includes gathering good information, developing sound plans and attentive water management, the report argues.
“The alternative is that water issues will be resolved ad hoc and at great expense in courts rather than through representative processes,” the study reads.
Christian Freitag, the law center’s director, said if better water laws aren’t approved soon that are based on data and research, Hoosiers face an uncertain future of water winners and losers.
As it stands now, the person, company or state agency with the biggest water pumps and most wells wins.
“I’m reminded of the concept of you don’t know what you got till it’s gone,” Freitag said. “We’re fortunate to have a lot of water in Indiana. And as soon as we start taking that for granted, we will no longer have a lot of water in Indiana.”
© 2025 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.