LEAP pipeline funding decisions on hold until 2025, local lawmakers assured

State Sen. Spencer Deery: Indiana House and Senate leadership say a bill to regulate large water transfers has the green light for 2024 General Assembly session, but no guarantee of passing

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LEAP PIPELINE FUNDING DECISIONS ON HOLD UNTIL 2025, LOCAL LAWMAKERS ASSURED

Greater Lafayette lawmakers came away from a Statehouse meeting Tuesday with assurances from General Assembly leaders that they would not entertain any funding measure, at least in the 2024 session, for a water pipeline between western Tippecanoe County and the vast LEAP District two counties away, near Lebanon.

State Sen. Spencer Deery, a West Lafayette Republican, said a handful of legislators with ties to Tippecanoe County also were given assurances that a bill being drafted – one aimed at restricting an Indiana Economic Development Corp. water pipeline concept estimated at $2 billion and targeting tens of millions of gallons a day from aquifers along the Wabash River – would get attention during the 2024 session, scheduled to start in January.

Wabash River, as seen from the Granville Bridge. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

“We've always said that we knew we were never going to get everything we wanted in terms of changes to Indiana Code or to the project to feel like we're fully protecting our community, but that we would get in and fight for everything that we could,” Deery said Tuesday afternoon, during the General Assembly’s annual Organization Day.

“I think we walked away with a couple of important commitments that have me encouraged,” Deery said.