INDIANAPOLIS — Over the next 100 years the Citizens Energy Group is estimating the Indianapolis metropolitan area will require an additional 275 million gallons of water on a daily basis.
The Interim Study Committee on Environmental Affairs of the Indiana General Assembly heard testimony on Wednesday pertaining to future water needs and the new reservoir planned near Noblesville.
Jeff Williams, vice president of water operations for Citizens Energy Group, said the utility is planning for 100 years in the future and how to meet that demand, which is based on a growth rate of a half percent per year in water usage.
He said there are three options available to the water utility: taking additional water from the White River and Fall Creek south of Indianapolis; a pipeline to the Ohio River; and construction of the Mounds Reservoir.
Those comments came after Citizens Energy Group has expressed little interest in the proposed Mounds Lake project.
“All are in the mix,” Williams said. “We rank the options by cost effectiveness.”
Williams said construction of a new reservoir is the third option.
“Building a brand new reservoir like Mounds has challenges,” he said. “These are community, environmental and cost challenges.”
Williams said the Mounds Reservoir — or any new reservoir — is at the bottom of the list.
A group of local business leaders has proposed damming the White River in Anderson to the west of Scatterfield Road creating a 2,100-acre lake that would have extended from Anderson to Yorktown.
The estimated cost of the project is $440 million. The lake would hold 11 billion gallons.
As part of a continuing exploration of the lake's feasibility, Rob Sparks, spokesman for the reservoir and executive director of the Madison County Corporation for Economic Development, said there are several studies that are based on differing assumptions about water need.
Citizens, for example, bases its assumptions on a 10-year drought event, while Mounds Lake supporters base their estimates of need on the worst-ever reported drought in 1940 and 1941.
"For us, generally speaking, that is what the real need is," said Sparks, but work to refine those models is continuing, and will be incorporated into an overall estimate of water need and determining a strategy of how to meet that need.
"You can't will projects into being if you don't have the money to pay for it," Sparks added. "Ultimately the decision of whether to move forward will come down to economics.
"I think there will be hundreds of millions, or billions spent in Indiana and surrounding states," to meet future water needs, he added.
Two preliminary studies have been completed and a proposal to create the Mounds Lake Commission consisting of government officials from Anderson, Chesterfield, Daleville and Yorktown failed when the two Delaware County communities voted not to participate.
The commission would have been responsible for the raising of an estimated $45 million to complete a more comprehensive Phase 3 study, secure funding for construction of the reservoir, and operate and market the water.
Citizen Energy estimates the Mounds Reservoir would provide 60 million gallons of water daily.
Williams told the Interim Study Committee that Citizens is opening a new reservoir along the White River near Fishers in 2020 that will hold 2.7 billion gallons of water and supply 25 million gallons of water daily.
He said Citizens obtains water currently from three reservoirs and 10 well fields. Williams said unlike most cities, Indianapolis is not located on a large body of water.
“Our largest source is the White River and Central Canal, which accounts for 60 percent of the supply,” he said.
He said the company anticipates a drought once every 10 years and during the 2012 moderate drought, the company was using 110 million gallons of water daily.
“There is enough water supply within 60 miles," Williams said. "We just need to plan how to obtain it.”
He said most of the expected need for water will come from south of Indianapolis, from the White River.
“The flow of the White River doubles south of Noblesville,” Williams said.
He said no pipeline will be constructed to Lake Monroe, south of Bloomington, because communities already rely on the lake as a water supply.
Herald Bulletin Reporter Stuart Hirsch contributed to this story.