IEDC: Boone County is ‘favored site’ of companies looking at Indiana
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Boone County’s close proximity to a major interstate, Purdue University and the city of Indianapolis made it the ideal choice for a 10,000-acre high-tech manufacturing district despite not having the water supply to support large chip factories and other advanced manufacturing projects, according to a state official.
“The area of Boone County and the Lebanon area have continuously risen as a favored site from both companies and site selectors that have come to look at various areas of the state,” said Kurt Fullbeck, vice president of development strategies for the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
Fullbeck’s comments came during a panel discussion Thursday about the LEAP Lebanon Innovation and Research District and central Indiana’s water needs at the sixth annual Indiana Water Summit, an event organized by the White River Alliance. LEAP stands for Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace.
This year’s conference drew heavy interest in large part due to the IEDC’s plans to tap into a Wabash River aquifer and pipe up to 100 million gallons of water per day to Boone County, a 35-mile journey. The water would then be treated and piped into a tributary of the White River or the Eagle Creek Reservoir.
Some hydrologists, water conservation experts and public officials in Tippecanoe County have raised concerns about the potential long-term effects on the Wabash River, and the residents who rely on its water supply.
Jack Wittman, principal geoscientist for Intera, a Texas-based engineering consulting firm that has been retained by the state of Indiana to identify potential water resources for the innovation district, said preliminary results indicate that the aquifer conditions along the Wabash downstream of the city of Lafayette could support the LEAP District and the future water needs of central Indiana.
“There will be consequences of some dimension, but the whole idea of the regulatory structure is to manage those consequences to actually make sure they’re acceptable,” Wittman said.
The IEDC has drilled 20 wells and installed water level recorders in the Wabash Alluvial Aquifer to track changes in stream and aquifer levels, Wittman said, but the agency has not yet released its results.
When asked if there was a backup plan should the study yield negative results, Wittman expressed confidence in preliminary findings.
“The drilling that we’ve done so far confirmed what has been mapped, so I am not too concerned about Plan B,” Wittman said. “This is really about managing a resource, executing a plan and developing the supply in a way that can support a project and also not effect the local people who are also using the aquifer.”
Fullbeck emphasized that piping water from the Wabash was “one part of a larger solution” to sustaining central Indiana’s long-term water supply.
A 2021 study of central Indiana’s water resources found that demand for water in the nine-county region is expected to increase by more than 100 million gallons per day by 2070.
In May, Indianapolis-based utility company Citizens Energy Group agreed to supply up to 10 million gallons of water per day by 2027 to meet the initial needs of the LEAP District. As more companies locate to the area, demand would increase.
Eli Lilly and Co. will serve as the anchor tenant of the LEAP District and is investing $3.7 billion in a new drug manufacturing site, a move that’s expected to result in more than 700 jobs. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker said the expansion is needed to keep up with expected growing demand for pharmaceutical products over the next decade.
The LEAP District under development in Boone County represents a shift in the way the state is working to attract companies and create jobs. The change is meant to help Indiana compete for the nation’s biggest high-tech economic development opportunities.