A rendering of a proposed LEAP Innovation District in Boone County, the biggest capital investment secured by the state in 2022. Rendering from the IEDC December 2022 agenda presentation.

By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — Indianapolis-based utility company Citizens Energy Group asked state regulators earlier this month to withdraw its proposal to supply million gallons of water per day from the West Lafayette region to a massive high-tech park planned in Boone County via a controversial pipeline project that is still in the works.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation, a quasi-public agency, is overseeing the LEAP Lebanon Innovation District. Officials want to pipe up to 100 million gallons of water daily from the Wabash Alluvial Aquifer to Lebanon — about 35 miles — where the water would be treated and sent into a tributary of the White River or the Eagle Creek Reservoir.

Citizens spokeswoman Laura O’Brien told the Indianapolis Business Journal that ongoing discussions with the IEDC have resulted in “material modifications” to their initial filing with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, prompting the company to withdraw a petition that was “no longer reflective of the present situation.”

O’Brien also said the company “remains hopeful” that it can continue to work with the IEDC and City of Lebanon to build water utility infrastructure for the LEAP District, according to the IBJ.

Earlier this year, Citizens’ board of directors voted to form a subsidiary, Citizens Water Resources Holdings, as part of a scheme to supply water for companies in the LEAP district.

The IURC has not yet issued a decision on the utility company’s request.

The IEDC first tapped Citizens in March 2022 about developing utility infrastructure needed to supply water to the district, according to the original, joint petition filed with the IURC in May. The initial amount of water expected to be pumped to Lebanon was 6 million gallons per day by 2026, before increasing to 10 million gallons per day by 2027.

The project — estimated to cost up to $200 million — would require the construction of 33 miles of pipeline, three booster stations and other improvements. Funding would come from the Indiana Finance Authority’s State Revolving Fund Loan, which the IEDC agreed to pay back within five years.

But in an Oct. 5 regulatory filing, Citizens attorney Michael Allen said the issues that caused the company to earlier request a stay “have not been resolved.”

IEDC spokeswoman Erin Sweitzer additionally said that Lebanon already has the water supply to serve the short-term and intermediate needs of the LEAP District. She said the original Citizens petition was meant to help fill a potential short-term need for additional water that the company “could have provided from their current water supply.”

That need has since been “satisfied,” Sweitzer continued, meaning Citizens’ need to supply the additional water — the need to file with the IURC — ”became moot.”

The utility company can still refile a revised request, however.

An IEDC-commissioned study released last month touted “abundant” water, indicating that two Wabash Aquifer wells combined could support — at maximum — a pumping rate of 45 million gallons daily. An executive summary said up to 30 million gallons daily could be “sustainably” supported.