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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana Economic Development Corp. plans to ask the state for $50 million to support bonds to finance a new pipeline that would send 25 million gallons of water to its LEAP Lebanon Innovation District and other Boone County developments, supporting the Eli Lilly and Co. manufacturing complex expansion, additional park tenants and new development in the city.
If approved, the money would be transferred from the Deal Closing Fund to the Indiana Finance Authority to secure bond financing, according to a State Budget Committee agenda.
The budget committee is expected to decide on the request Thursday morning.
The finance authority took the first step last week toward financing a new Citizens Energy project that would channel 25 million gallons of water a day to the area, IBJ first reported Friday.
The potential project would serve as a water source to support the LEAP district, which is the IEDC’s major effort to draw giant tech manufacturing facilities to the state (LEAP stands for Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace). The pipeline is expected to serve the needs of the park for the next 15 to 20 years, but the park would ultimately need additional water supplies to reach its projected scale.
The Citizens Energy proposal is a separate endeavor from the IEDC’s exploration of possibly pumping up to 100 million gallons of water per day through a 35-mile pipeline to the LEAP district from Wabash River aquifers near Lafayette. The Wabash pipeline is on pause while officials await the results of the IFA water study to be released later this year.
The Citizens Energy-Lebanon Utilities project is one of several water and wastewater improvement efforts around the state that could be funded through $500 million in bonds approved Thursday by the Indiana Finance Authority. James McGoff, chief operating officer and director of environmental programs at the Indiana Finance Authority, said the Lebanon project’s slice of financing could be upwards of $100 million.
While no additional authorization for the bonds is needed, financing for the Lebanon Utilities project would still need to be approved for funding through the State Revolving Fund Loan Program, finance authority officials told IBJ in an email.
The IEDC declined to comment on the water project and its new funding request, referring all questions to the state finance authority.
The IEDC has three other requests in front of the budget committee.
If approved, the Samsung SDI/Stellantis battery plant project in Kokomo nicknamed Project Fusion would receive $101 million of the $245 million promised by IEDC. The company is weighing a $5.9 billion investment and thus would receive a pricier-than-average performance incentive.
Economic deals that are announced don’t always come to fruition. Some projects are called off altogether or don’t result in the number of expected new jobs. The IEDC only pays out incentives when companies meet their job-creation and investment commitments.
Another request seeks $36 million to acquire about 1,850 acres of land within the LEAP District for three companies. The companies deal in advanced computing, information technology and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.
The money would go toward property acquisition, deposits and option payments. Once secured, the IEDC would then sell the land to the companies and return the sale cost back to the state’s general fund.
In June, the budget committee approved $59 million for the IEDC to acquire 1,400 additional acres and purchase 1,100 contracted acres for three companies with similar industry focuses as this Thursday’s request. It’s unclear if the requests are related to the same companies.
The agency also seeks $15 million for ongoing LEAP District infrastructure development, including roadwork, roundabout construction and utility installation for the park’s tenants. In June, $29 million was approved for similar district infrastructure improvements.
The IEDC did not provide further information on the three companies being prepped for in the LEAP District.
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I’m sure people have asked this before, but wouldn’t it be better to locate this somewhere that has the existing infrastructure like within Indianapolis instead of a greenfield development contributing to countless issues and sprawl? There are plenty of areas within Marion County that could withstand redevelopment, and with it being the largest city in the state, it would be both centrally located for potential workers and upgrading existing infrastructure is most of the time cheaper in the long run.
On paper that sounds like a good idea but due to zoning, costly real estate, and variable water supply the Lebanon location was chosen. There are pros and cons to every location so people would complain no matter where LEAP landed. The biggest issue here is water and future law changes that affect how we use it. Indiana needs to complete these studies and work with state agencies (scientist) to get better understanding of the resource before it’s too late, and we create problems like the western states. Building pipelines all over the place is not best solution.
We spend a year talking about piping in water from the Wabash River, then overnight they flip the script and are going to simply build a pipeline to take water from Westfield, the state’s fastest growing city, instead?
What happens to the wastewater created from the use of 25 million gallons/day? How will this be stored, cleaned, reused, etc? Who pays for that?
For microchip manufacturing it’s used for cooling and washing the chips. The majority of the water (98% or more) is supposedly going to be discharged into a local stream that leads to Eagle Creek. It’s called an inter basin transfer. Not enough scientific research in Indiana has been completed to determine the pros and cons of this.
We can only hope, once up and running, the tercentenary and high tech treatment is clean enough to to recycle the vast majority of the water for a continual reuse.
Just say no. If there isn’t enough water move it somewhere else.
Why not build a reservoir at SR 47?
Reservoirs require public involvement and transparency, IEDC doesn’t!
Reservoirs require buying a bunch of land, getting plans approved, and time to build and then fill it. Pipeline construction is much, much faster.
There is no stream or ditch within the LEAP district or immediate Lebanon area that discharges to Eagle Creek; the streams flow northwest to Sugar Creek.
Roughly halfway between Lebanon and Whitestown the streams & ditches flow southeast, so the only way to get it to Eagle Creek is to pump southeast to at least that point…another pipeline
If this were a private sector project, somebody’s miscalculations would have already cost them their employment.
Thus our failed governor candidate that initiated this whole leap thing.
This project is a joke. A pipeline will also require eminent domain for an easement. I agree with the reservoir idea. Why can’t this water be reused if it’s for cooling and washing?
Government job … naturally not thought out