Nov. 16—ANDERSON — As some expect the Indiana General Assembly to begin discussions on a comprehensive state-wide water plan during the upcoming legislative session, advocates say there is 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.
Discussions about water planning have become prominent as plans for Boone County’s LEAP district continue to evolve. Millions of gallons of water must be piped to the area to support the industrial project.
The LEAP project has raised concerns among some local residents, who openly questioned whether there would be enough water to sustain agricultural operations and other infrastructure.
Maria Jose Iturbide-Chang, director of water policy for the Hoosier Environmental Council, believes residents’ concerns are valid, but action can be taken to ensure Hoosiers have water for years to come.
These actions, she said, start with protecting and conserving wetlands, which collect significant amounts of rainwater.
“Even though we see isolated wetlands and think they are not important, they have their ecological importance,” she said.
“(Wetland conservation) promotes aquifer recharge because so far we have only been extracting water from the aquifers (via tap water and other systems) and we have not returned the amount of water we extracted to the aquifer ,” Iturbide-Chang added.
A wetland is defined as “an area of land in which water covers the ground all year round or at different times of the year,” according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
According to information from the United States Geological Survey, one acre of wetland can hold up to 38,000 bathtubs full of water, while a large bathtub can hold 40 gallons of water.
Water stored in wetlands can filter through the ground and end up in an aquifer, from which water taps draw.
Iturbide-Chang believes this could be beneficial because Indiana’s water contains some of the highest concentrations of pollutants in the United States.
She cited data from a 2022 report commissioned by the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit organization specializing in environmental law. It identified Indiana as the top state for polluted waterways.
Wetlands are also important parts of watersheds, areas where all water flows into a common waterway.
They filter nutrients, including phosphorus and nitrogen, which, if left unchecked, would leach into regular water, resulting in an excess of algae and other plants.
“When these algae and plants die, oxygen in the water is used during the decomposition process,” researchers at the Conservation Technology Information Center wrote in a recent report.
“This can result in a lack of oxygen, which can lead to fish kills.”
Residents of Clark County in southern Indiana saw this firsthand in 2018 when hundreds of fish were found dead at the Speed Golf Course in Sellersburg. Officials believed this was the result of the increased algae, the Jeffersonville News and Tribune reported.
Aquatic life is an indicator of a healthy watershed. Others include wildlife diversity, environmental burdens and wetland alteration.
The White River Alliance gave the local watershed an “F” in the wetland change category in its 2023 White River Report Card, a metric that measures the percent change in wetland area.
Advocates point to similar data as evidence that wetlands are increasingly threatened.
Wetlands are given a degree of protection based on classes. Human disturbance is one of the main factors separating the classes; Class I consists of wetlands that have been significantly disturbed by humans, to the point where water saturation has changed; Class III consists of isolated wetlands of greatest ecological importance, including acid swamps and cypress swamps.
The Indiana General Assembly recently repealed the Class I licensing requirements in House Bill 1383, which was signed into law in July. Developers, Iturbide-Chang said, now have significantly fewer restrictions when 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 to developers.
She lamented the Indiana State Department of Natural Resources’ mitigation bank program, which allows developers to drain wetlands for a fee.
“This developer is paying DNR to invest in another area and create a wetland,” she explained, a process that could take a few years.
Iturbide-Chang said as of Thursday, the Hoosier Environmental Council had no alternatives to present to lawmakers during the 2025 session.
Follow Caleb Amick on Twitter @AmickCaleb. Contact him at caleb.amick@heraldbulletin.com or 765-648-4254.
