Bloomington council overrides mayor to decry LEAP pipeline project
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The Bloomington City Council overrode a mayoral veto Wednesday night to express its disapproval of an Indiana Economic Development Corp. plan to divert significant water draws from Wabash River aquifers to the LEAP Innovation and Research District in Boone County.
The council narrowly passed the resolution in late March after Mayor Kerry Thomson warned council members that she would not be signing any resolutions that do not directly affect the city. Thomson then did not sign the resolution in the 10-day window, effectively vetoing it.
The override vote passed 7-0 with one abstention and one member absent. Two members switched their abstentions to yes votes since the initial passage.
Though Bloomington is nearly 100 miles away from the district, the resolution was introduced and passed to show solidarity with communities expected to be impacted. Councilor Andy Ruff, the resolution’s author, said the move also would also urge state lawmakers to develop “critically needed” water quantity policy to protect communities.
Ruff said the move is not to oppose the IEDC, but rather the precedent the project could set for future developments. Many community and city leaders also expressed their apprehension to such a move in case it caused a riff with the quasi-public state agency, but Ruff said other communities have passed similar measures with no retaliation.
“That is precedent-setting in a way that could certainly and will likely affect Bloomington directly in the near future, given our dependence on Lake Monroe and its potential to be tapped in a similar way,” Ruff said during the meeting. “This is an issue that directly impacts and affects Bloomington. It’s a very important issue that we should be concerned about.”
Councilor Andy Ruff, the resolution’s author, talks about how this resolution impacts Bloomington.
The IEDC plan seeks to direct as much as 100 million gallons of water a day to the 10,000-acre LEAP District about 35 miles away. However, Gov. Eric Holcomb and state officials halted the plan until the Indiana Finance Authority completes a comprehensive water study. LEAP stands for Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace.
In 2006, Monroe County faced a water diversion proposal for a 60-mile pipeline routing up to 90 million gallons of water a day from the county’s reservoir to Indianapolis—which would have potentially disrupted Bloomington’s water supply. That project fell through after then-Gov. Mitch Daniels called it a “nonstarter.”
The council may also consider a veto override on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War.