The Lafayette City Council voted unanimously Monday evening in favor of a resolution opposing the transfer of water from Tippecanoe County to the LEAP Innovation District project in Lebanon.
The resolution officially opposes the construction of a pipeline to divert water from the Wabash and Teays River aquifers to the LEAP Innovation District in Lebanon. The resolution provided reasons behind the council’s decision, ranging from a lack of transparency to a call for surrounding communities, the state and the nation to work toward a better system for the use of water.
The resolution reads, “the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) planned the Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace (LEAP) Innovation District in Boone County without ensuring adequate water resources to support the industries they aimed to attract.”
In 2022, the state announced its intentions to move operations into Lafayette and Tippecanoe County for the potential use of water for the project. In August, conversations reignited about a possible Lafayette-Lebanon water pipeline to divert water from Tippecanoe County to the LEAP Innovation District as a result of the IEDC’s estimation that the project would require billions of gallons of water annually, which would require the district to look toward northern counties outside of the Indianapolis area, according to IEDC representatives. The proposed contract would have planned for a $10.2 million plan to construct a 35-mile pipeline from Lafayette to Lebanon. Talks with state officials and Frankfort officials, including Todd Corrie, Frankfort Utilities General Manager, have revealed that the project would require 10 million to 20 million gallons of water every day to fuel the operations.
The state conducted tests during late July into August by drilling 19 wells along the Wabash River, and the IEDC concluded that the aquifer residing under the Wabash River would likely provide the pipeline with enough water to satisfy the needs of the project. Regardless of the IEDC and hydrologist reports, Attica and West Lafayette, and now Lafayette, have officially opposed the introduction of the pipeline.
According to the resolution passed Monday, “the IEDC initiated activities with a lack of transparency regarding the construction of a pipeline to transfer tens of millions of gallons of water daily from the Wabash River aquifer and the Teays River aquifer in Tippecanoe County to the LEAP Innovation District.” In September 2022, Clinton County and Frankfort Utilities were notified that the state would not require Frankfort’s aid to pump water to the district after conducting multiple tests for the transfer of water to Boone County, and when asked about his experience with the initial stages of the project, Corrie echoed the statements in the resolution.
“They came in and they drilled, I want to say it was either 11 or 14 test wells, and they drilled them west of Frankfort going toward 65, they drilled some out by Clinton Prairie, and I think they drilled one or two west of 65, and they did find water out that way, but they didn’t find enough of it in that direction,” Corrie said. “When they came to Clinton County, they came in and they didn’t even ask for our help. They didn’t do anything. They just said, ‘this is what we’re doing, and you guys are gonna be on board with it’ because at one time they were talking about a treatment plant that would be built, and that we would run the treatment plant. There wasn’t much conversation, it was ‘this is what you guys will do.'”
The resolution continued to claim that the proposed diversion of water from the resources in Tippecanoe County could result in unplanned negative ecological and economic development consequences for the residents, businesses and governmental entities in Tippecanoe County.
The council and Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski reiterated their stance on the project by passing the resolution, which states “be it resolved by the Common Council of the City of Lafayette that we vehemently oppose the construction of the pipeline and the diversion of water from the Wabash River aquifer and the Teays River aquifer in Tippecanoe County to the LEAP Innovation District in Boone County.”
Attica, West Lafayette and Lafayette have formalized their opposition to the pipeline. Roswarski stated that he foresees Monticello passing a similar resolution in the future.