Daleville council delays vote on Mounds Lake commission

The Daleville Town Council has delayed a vote on whether to join a commission that would oversee a proposal for a central Indiana reservoir on the White River.

The council voted to table the measure Monday. Council President Tom Roberts said officials intend to vote on it next month.

The commission would oversee a feasibility study for the proposed 2,100-acre Mounds Lake reservoir, which would be formed by damming the White River in Anderson at an estimated cost of $440 million. The commission would have elected officials from Anderson, Chesterfield, Daleville and Yorktown, the Herald Bulletin of Anderson reported.

Councils in Anderson and Chesterfield have voted to join the commission. The council in Yorktown is scheduled to vote later this month.

Project supporters say the reservoir could help the state's long-term water needs and attract additional investment and residents to the area.

Opponents maintain the reservoir isn't needed for water supplies and warn that the project would waste millions of dollars, flood a stretch of the river, destroy wildlife habitat and threaten historic sites, including some in Anderson's Mounds State Park.

State Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, said last month that the project should be reviewed by a state legislative committee. She called for the legislature's study committee on environmental affairs to take up the proposal because of many unanswered questions surrounding the project.