Tippecanoe County officials remain skeptical of a proposed pipeline that could move millions of gallons of water from their county down to a massive industrial project in Lebanon.
State officials have reportedly told regional officials that early tests of the feasibility of the pipeline are “great.”
A state expert similarly told WTHR last week that preliminary data suggest the aquifer and river “are large relative to the need.”
County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh said during a meeting earlier this month with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, regional officials were told data would not be available until the end of the year. He said the state told them early testing results have been positive.
“They are saying that they would be able to show that if they pulled off x amount of water, there would be no impact to this region,” he said. “But again, we want to have any data that is released reviewed by a third party.”
Murtaugh said there is a “level of frustration” with the IEDC over the release of its data. He said initially some data was expected by the end of summer.
“IEDC has always been a great partner to us as far as economic development,” he said. “It’s frustrating we’re not getting the information in the manner they said was going to be shared.”
According to Murtaugh, the state has drilled two pumping wells and 17 monitoring wells as part of its investigation.
Murtaugh has previously underlined that he’s not opposed to piping water down to Lebanon for the industrial district there, but he needs assurances that withdrawals won’t negatively impact Tippecanoe County.
“We need to be able to document to our constituents here that this isn’t going to have an impact on private wells, that it’s not going to have an impact on obviously our public wells, and that it’s not going to affect future growth,” he said.
A spokesperson for the IEDC said they “look forward to sharing more information when the reports are finalized” – noting that one studys is expected to be completed by the end of the summer.
“There will be a final report for the initial testing that will be done at the end at the end of this summer,” the spokesperson said. “We expect a full report on the aquifer by the end of the year.”
According to the IEDC spokesperson, Lebanon does have the water capacity to support the Eli Lilly manufacturing facility which broke ground earlier this year.
