MUNCIE, Ind. — Officials in Anderson, Ind., want to dam the White River and create a 2,100-acre lake in Madison and Delaware counties at a cost of an estimated $440 million. While they believe they have "overwhelming support" from the community, farmers and other landowners are not so enthusiastic.
The Delaware County Farm Bureau announced its opposition last week to the proposed Mounds Lake Reservoir because it would dispose of valuable farmland and forests around the White River, said Joe Russell, vice president of the Delaware County Farm Bureau.
"As much as 3,000 acres are impacted, and almost half of that is in Delaware County," he said. "We just think a better use of the land is farming,"
Even though most of the disputed land is in a river floodway, Russell believes most of that acreage is currently being farmed for row crops or hardwood. He said his group represents 5,000 farmers, and they have expressed their concerns in meetings.
Rob Sparks, executive director of the Corp. for Economic Development in Anderson, said about 450 acres of farmland in Delaware County would be impacted by the project. He said the land around the White River is in a 100-year floodway, which floods frequently and has drainage problems. He does not dispute the value of the land for farming, however.
"The complexity of this project provides an opportunity to look at the problems plaguing the area and try to alleviate them ... We will be working with the stakeholders, Farm Bureau and county commissioners to develop an engineered development strategy," Sparks said.
The local Farm Bureau believes drainage would be impaired as water levels change because of the project. In addition, it says water levels in the lake would not be deep enough to provide recreation. "At the upper end, the water would be 2 to 4 feet deep or no water, which is not a high quality (reservoir). The cost exceeds the benefits in Delaware County," Russell said.
Sparks said the Mounds Lake Reservoir would be extremely valuable as a water resource in central Indiana, and economically. "The Mounds Lake is an extremely high-quality asset. It will be considerably deeper than anything in this area. It will have 40 percent additional capacity than the Geist Reservoir because of its depth. It will hold 11 billion gallons of water," he said.
The project is in its third phase of development, preliminary design and permitting, and has already completed a citizen survey, which showed 72 percent of the public was in favor of the project, and a feasibility study to determine if the project could provide more water storage for central Indiana.
The economy of the area, which has suffered a severe downturn after factories left, would be vastly improved if the reservoir can be completed, Sparks said. "This is an economic project unlike any other project. It would be a paradigm shift for our economy. It would be a foundation over the generations to set a new direction, a new course," he said.
The next phase involves getting financial backing, such as grants from foundations, government agencies or utilities and forming a Mounds Lake Commission, Sparks said.
"The next phase will take two to three years and is critical. There is a lot of work to be done. I can’t guarantee the outcome. We are at the beginning of getting serious," he said. "We have the overwhelming support of the public, with some environmentalist opposition. You can’t take on a project like this without questions from the public, and you can’t take it lightly that some people will lose their property."
Sparks hopes to come to a compromise with landowners affected by the project and that eminent domain will be a last resort. "We are not going to build this on the backs of people. We would buy land that’s needed for the lake, not future development," he added.
Other concerns listed by the local Farm Bureau include increased mosquitoes, a lack of need for water in Delaware County and an increased tax burden.
