LEAP is perhaps the largest and most expensive economic development project ever undertaken by the State of Indiana. LEAP will likely lead to an environmental and financial crisis for Hoosier taxpayers and utility customers.

The plan is for the industrial park to include energy and water intensive industries like microchip factories and pharmaceutical manufacturers (Eli Lilly). The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) has chosen to locate a massive industrial park in a county that does not have sufficient water resources to support large-scale development. 

The IEDC was created by the Indiana General Assembly in 2005 under Governor Mitch Daniels. It is essentially a privatized state agency that operates in secret, with little accountability or transparency, and no mechanism for public input. The IEDC’s lack of transparency is consistent with its legislative design. Their failure to inform and engage communities about the project plans has led to significant and valid public concern. This public outcry about the LEAP district led CAC to investigate.

In order to obtain the water needed for this industrial park, the IEDC is planning to build two sets of pipelines to supply the facility:

• A 52 mile pipeline from Lafayette to Lebanon to take water from the Wabash Valley watershed to supply prospective microchip, data center, and other facilities.
• A 50 mile pipeline from Indianapolis to Lebanon to supply water to Lebanon for purposes of supplying the Eli Lilly facilities.

CAC's Findings:

• The shell-game with water to enable the LEAP district is generating a huge public outcry and a water war, contrary to sound water policy.

• From a policy perspective, the State of Indiana is viewing water strictly as a tool for near-term, opportunistic economic development. Water is a resource that requires strategic and systematic consideration. We must secure water availability for communities into the future. We must also ensure water bill affordability for Indiana's water customers, who have been ignored for decades.

• The Indiana Economic Development Corporation, essentially a privatized state agency with little to no accountability to policymakers or the public, must be reformed or abolished.

The IEDC has hijacked Indiana's water policy. Ultimately, with the IEDC driving the water policy ship, water management policy is being discussed and formulated in secret - with no public input at all.  There is no forum or mechanism to allow for a detailed, systematic, rational discussion about water policy, which is critical for many applications – not just near-term, speculative opportunities for economic development that are not well thought out.

The IEDC has already committed nearly $1 billion of taxpayer funding to the LEAP district. Significant costs remain, and many questions remain unanswered.

Thanks to the Indiana General Assembly’s passage of the Transmission, Distribution, and Storage System Improvement Charges (TDSIC) law, the IEDC was granted the authority to approve costs associated with a utility's TDSIC plan as a “targeted economic development project,” forcing ratepayers to assume the burden of those costs. 

CAC is very concerned that Hoosier families may end up footing the bill through their water and electric bills for many of the unanswered questions below.

• Who will pick up the rest of the $2+ BILLION tab for water and wastewater infrastructure?

• Where will the power come from to supply these energy intensive industries, and who will pay for it?

• How and where will the thousands of tons of hazardous waste per year generated by these dirty industries be handled, treated, and disposed of? Who will pay for it?

• Where will the tens of millions of gallons of daily wastewater from the LEAP district be sent? Who will pay for it? With water withdrawals of this magnitude, if the water is not returned to the watershed where it was taken from, it could cause serious environmental degradation and water shortage issues.