Resolution opposing water pipeline put off by Bloomington city council until March 27
A resolution opposing a potential water pipeline from the aquifers of the Wabash River to Lebanon in Boone County, has been postponed by Bloomington’s city council until March 27.
The council action came at its regular Wednesday meeting.
Lebanon is about 30 miles northwest of Indianapolis. From Lebanon, it’s another 35 miles, northwest along I-65, to West Lafayette.
The pipeline is part of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s eventual plan to provide resources to its LEAP (Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace) District near Lebanon in Boone County. The idea is to attract a mix of businesses and develop a workforce to support employment in and around Lebanon. Technically, the pipeline is on hold, while a water study is being done.
At Wednesday’s meeting, at-large councilmember Andy Ruff, who introduced the resolution, described the LEAP District as a “massive, largely speculative economic development project, spearheaded by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.”
The problem that Ruff and other pipeline opponents see in the LEAP District is a lack of enough water to support the kind of water-intensive industries that could locate there. One such industry is microchip manufacturing,
Why would Bloomington’s city council pass a resolution about an issue centered several counties away?
Ruff said on Wednesday that the purpose of the resolution is to “show solidarity with our fellow Hoosier communities that are grappling with shared concerns about essential public resources that really need to be thoughtfully managed and protected, rather than aggressively exploited for speculative economic development like this.”
It was Ruff himself who moved for the postponement—after pushback to his resolution from Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson, representatives from the economic development community, and his fellow councilmembers.
Their concerns about the resolution included the lack of outreach by Ruff to the IEDC about the topic, as well as the wording of the resolved clause, which established a policy position for the city of Bloomington, not just Bloomington’s city council.
The resolved clause for Bloomington’s resolution reads like this:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED BY THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BLOOMINGTON, MONROE COUNTY, INDIANA, THAT:
SECTION 1. The City of Bloomington hereby expresses its opposition to the construction of a pipeline and diversion of water from the Wabash River aquifer and/or the Teays River aquifer to the LEAP Innovation District in Boone County.
That contrasts with a similar resolution passed by the city council of West Lafayette in early October last year:
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved by the Common Council of the City of West Lafayette that we express our firm opposition to 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.
Addressing the city council, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson asked that if the council moves forward with the resolution, that it be amended to express a policy position just on behalf of the city council—at least until she has a chance to discuss it with the council.
Thomson told the council, “We have had no conversation about this.” She noted that her name would have to land on the document, if it moved forward as a resolution.
On a couple of occasions when he was mayor, Thomson’s immediate predecessor, John Hamilton, dealt with situations where the council passed a resolution that he opposed. He went ahead and signed them, but annotated his signature with his handwritten dissent. That was not an option floated by Thomson at Wednesday’s meeting.
But Thomson did suggest that the council could adopt a letter of opposition instead of a resolution, which would not require the mayor’s signature. It is just resolutions and ordinances passed by the city council that must be submitted to the mayor for a signature.
Thomson’s concerns were about more than just precise wording of the council’s action.
Responding to Ruff’s contention that the IEDC’s planning work on the LEAP was done in secret, Thomson said, “The LEAP District is in fact not a secret. It’s been quite public.”
Thomson added: “And, in fact, it has been a strategic project of the state that has successfully attracted businesses to the district—really, in many ways a groundbreaking economic development district.”
Thomson also asked the council to consider making the resolution about the need for a comprehensive water plan for the state, instead of a statement that just opposes a pipeline.
Thomson said, “We are reliant on a single source of surface water here in Monroe County, in Bloomington, and I believe we need to create some redundancy at some point, that may cause us to need to tap some other kind of water or indeed to build a pipeline ourselves.”
From the public mic, Jen Pearl, who is president of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation, told the council she is concerned about the kind of message the resolution would send to the IEDC and to the broader business community.
Pearl said, “We’re concerned about the resolution sending a negative message to the IEDC, which is a partner with many entities across the community—or to the general public, that we’re not welcoming of partnership or business.” Pearl added, “ Also, multiple organizations across our region and county regularly partner with the IEDC, which has proven to be a very collaborative partner.”
Also from the public mic, Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI) CEO Tina Peterson told the council that she agrees that water is an important issue. But she asked the council to put off the resolution, in order to “take the opportunity to engage more of us in this conversation.”
Peterson continued, “I would hate for us inadvertently—through this conversation that should be involving the IEDC—to really negatively impact the opportunities we have right now.”
She added, “We have had a great relationship with IEDC as it relates to the READI initiative. They have made investments in this community and the communities that surround us.” READI stands for Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative.
In 2021, the Uplands Region received $30 million of READI funding, including $1.8 million to fund part of Bloomington’s Hopewell neighborhood redevelopment project.
From his spot on the dais, Isak Asare asked Ruff if he had reached out to the IEDC on the topic of the LEAP District. Ruff indicated he had not.
Asare said, “We, as a community, have a very good relationship with the IEDC.” He added, “And it is not the custom…of this body to introduce resolutions and not give all sides the opportunity to give information.”
Asare also noted Indiana’s secretary of commerce (David Rosenberg) had attended the BEDC’s annual meeting on Feb. 23, in Bloomington, which Asare had attended, along with councilmember Hopi Stosberg.
Asare reported that the topic of the LEAP District was brought up at the BEDC’s meeting and there was an open discussion in public about it. Earlier on Wednesday, Asare said he had called the chief of staff at the IEDC, and they answered the phone. The IEDC was “surprised that we had introduced such a resolution without engaging,” Asare said.
When the council again takes up the issue later in the month, that will be a chance to add another round of presentations on the topic, to follow those that were made on Wednesday.
Councilmember Dave Rollo, said that when the council takes up the issue again, he wants to invite the Citizen Action Coalition to talk about their experiences with the IEDC. He also suggested inviting a representative from the IEDC to make it a “really informative event to drill down on this publicly.”
On Wednesday, following Asare’s remarks, Rollo asked at-large West Lafayette city councilmember David Sanders, who joined on the Zoom video conferencing platform, for his perspective on IEDC.
Sanders said, “I’m really pleased that the IEDC comes to Bloomington and is willing to engage with you.” Sanders continued, “They have been repeatedly invited to Tippecanoe County to address these issues. And they have refused every single time.”
Sanders had been invited by Ruff to address councilmembers for the initial presentation of the resolution.
When he first learned about the pipeline project last spring, Sanders talked about how he’d been told that city governments don’t have a role. But Sanders said, “I think that there is a role, and it’s important for someone to speak out directly in opposition.” Based on the positive reaction to the resolution that the West Lafayette city council had passed, he founded an organization called Stop the Water Steal.
Also invited to give remarks to the Bloomington city council on Wednesday was Larry Grant, mayor of Attica, Indiana. About the Wabash River, Grant said, “We’ve had wells underneath the river for many, many years. That’s where we get our water.”
Referring to the LEAP pipeline project, Grant said, “We have no idea of what this project would do to our wells.” He added, “My big fear, when I heard about this second hand this summer, was that we wake up someday and our wells are dry and our reservoir is empty.”
Former councilmember Steve Volan was also invited by Ruff to speak. Volan had considered introducing a resolution like Ruff’s last year before Volan’s term was over. Volan read aloud from a work by Thomas Clark called “Indiana University: Midwestern Pioneer,” to illustrate how the choice of location for cities and universities had not necessarily considered the adequacy of the water supply.
The passage read by Volan recounted a shortage of water in Bloomington for Indiana University in 1914. In that year, a letter was written to Bloomington’s mayor and city council by the IU trustees and then-president of the university, William Lowe Bryan. The letter read in part: “Gentlemen, I beg to ask that the trustees of Indiana University may meet you for a conference on the water situation in Bloomington on Wednesday, May 20.”
If representatives from the IEDC are present when the city council next takes up the resolution, they will get some questions from Ruff.
Ruff said, “I do look forward to asking the IEDC why they didn’t respond to the WTHR Channel 13 investigative reporter for eight months.”
Ruff said he also looked forward to asking IEDC representatives why they refused requests “over and over again” from Tippecanoe County, Attica, West Lafayette and other communities, to talk about the LEAP pipeline project.
