Indiana Advances $560M Water Supply Plan for Mega Projects Despite Objections

Water is needed to support the Lilly Medicine Foundry, which broke ground in May 2025, with Fluor providing engineering, procurement and construction management; and also the Meta data center, which began construction in February along with 700 new homes approved near the research park. Turner Construction Co. is the Meta project contractor

Construction of parts of the Citizens Lebanon Water Supply Program, which would bring water to the area, have already started. It would allow the Indianapolis public water utility, Citizens Energy Group,
to provide up to 25 million gallons of water per day by 2031—to the district from Indianapolis sources. Under a wholesale agreement, Lebanon Utilities, the city’s electric, water and wastewater utility, would purchase water and then discharge treated industrial wastewater from the Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace district through a pipeline back into the reservoir.

The water project calls for Citizens Energy to install 52 miles of new water mains through central Indiana in Marion, Hendricks, Boone and Hamilton counties. The system would draw from multiple sources, including Eagle Creek Reservoir, Citizens Reservoir, Geist and Morse reservoirs, the White River and groundwater.

The project also would include constructing booster stations, adding 450 water hydrants and new water storage facilities, and upgrading the White River North and T.W. Moses water treatment plants. It is being financed with loans through Indiana’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and requires 450 easements from landowners.

Project Objections Mount

“Early construction activities began in late 2025 and continue to ramp up on multiple projects within the overall Citizens-Lebanon Water Supply Program,” said Benjamin Easley, a Citizens Energy spokesperson.

The amount of water drawn from Eagle Creek Reservoir would increase from 10 million gallons per day to 11 to 13 million gallons per day, Citizens Energy says.

Residents near Eagle Creek Park, where the reservoir is located, have raised objections to the project such as return of treated wastewater to the reservoir.

Indianapolis resident Lou Ann Baker, who described the park as “an oasis in the middle of a lot of urban development” with a wide range of recreational uses, said that “decisions [about the project] were made without any input from residents and even without their knowledge.”

Dan Boots, a city-county council member who wrote its ten-page letter signed by 21 of 24 members, said: “We just want to get everyone to sit down, de-escalate, bring the emotion down, and to talk objectively about how to find a resolution to all these concerns.”

Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, a consumer and environmental advocacy group, questions decisions related to what it says could become Indiana’s largest and most expensive economic development project—estimating it is spending $1 billion in taxpayer funds on the new industrial district.  The Indiana Economic Development Corp. “has chosen to locate a massive industrial park in a county that does not have sufficient water resources to support large-scale development,” he said.

Regarding the letter from the city-county council members, Olson said they “are being responsive to their constituents but they didn’t get involved when it would have made a difference.”

On its website, the coalition says the state development corporation “has hijacked Indiana’s water policy.”. that “it is being discussed and formulated in secret – with no public input at all.”

Defending the project, Citizens Energy says it “will enable continued regional growth in central Indiana through attracting and retaining high-paying jobs and opportunities,” adding that “regionalization of water utility service in central Indiana promotes affordability, including within Marion County.”

Easley noted that the utiity is not an official decision-maker for Lebanon Utilities’ wastewater treatment or discharge agreements.

“Lebanon Utilities is responsible for wastewater treatment design, permitting, and discharge decisions, in coordination with state and federal regulators,” he says. “Yet, as Citizens [Energy] holds stewardship as a core value, we are working as a program stakeholder with Lebanon Utilities to ensure that no decisions are made that would negatively impact our customers or the Eagle Creek Reservoir ecosystem.”

A master plan for the Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace district was prepared by consultant MKSK. Easley declined to name contractors working on the water project except that the utility “has engaged local and national firms and contractors for the design and construction projects of this multifaceted program.”