Bloomington council votes to oppose LEAP pipeline; mayoral veto likely
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The Bloomington City Council narrowly passed a resolution Wednesday opposing 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 as well as encouraging the state to develop a comprehensive water management policy.
However, Mayor Kerry Thomson told the council she would not be signing advocacy resolutions the council considers that do not directly affect the city. She did not directly say whether she would veto the LEAP pipeline resolution but urged council members to find other avenues to express such opinions.
“While it is your prerogative to pass resolutions that express viewpoints on matters that we do not oversee, as a matter of principle, I will not be signing any resolutions that do not directly impact the business of our city,” Thomson said.
Her comment also comes before a resolution calling for the federal government to send humanitarian aid to Gaza is introduced next week.
Five council members voted in support while the other four abstained, agreeing a letter would have been a better format.
“This feels like pretty far down the spectrum of the kinds of issues that we should be directly addressing,” said councilmember Matt Flaherty, who abstained from the vote. “I regret that we’ve had to spend very limited staff and resources…I just don’t think it’s a good use of our time.”
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.
The matter was introduced at the council’s March 6 meeting but was tabled after Thomson, some council members and local business leaders asked to pump the breaks to discuss the move further and to hear more from the IEDC. Attica Mayor Larry Grant and West Lafayette City Council member David Sanders, author of a similar resolution and founder of protest group Stop the Water Steal, spoke at the meeting about the background of the issue and their appreciation for the Bloomington resolution.
Though Bloomington is nearly 100 miles away from the district, the resolution was meant 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.
“It’s only a matter of time until we’ve seen another such proposal, possibly modeled on the plan that this proposed resolution opposes,” Ruff said during the meeting. “This resolution demonstrates that Bloomington doesn’t only care when it’s our well-being and water security that is under threat and in jeopardy.”
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.”
Attica, Lafayette, West Lafayette, Monticello and several county councils have passed similar resolutions sounding their displeasure at the project’s pipeline plan.