.webp?t=1776093544)
A $560 million plan to bring much-needed water to Lebanon, Ind., an Indianapolis suburb where megaprojects are underway — a $10 billion Meta data center campus and a $9 billion Eli Lilly advanced manufacturing plant — is moving forward, despite objections. These include a recent letter from the majority of the Indianapolis-Marion City-County Council expressing concern about the project’s potential environmental threats and lack of transparency.
Mega developments are planned at the Limitless Exploration/Advanced Pace District, an approximately 9,500-acre industrial campus being developed along Interstate 65 in Lebanon in Boone County.
Water is needed to support the Lilly Medicine Foundry, which broke ground in May 2025, with Fluor providing engineering, procurement and construction management; and also the Meta data centre, which started construction in February along with 700 new approved homes near the research park. Turner Construction Co. is the contractor for the Meta project
Construction on parts of Citizens Lebanon’s water supply program, which would bring water to the area, has already begun. It would allow the Indianapolis Public Water Company, Citizen Energy Group,
to provide up to 25 million gallons of water per day by 2031 to the district from sources in Indianapolis. Under a wholesale agreement, Lebanon Utilities, the city’s electric, water and wastewater utility, would purchase water and then discharge treated industrial wastewater from the Unlimited Exploration/Advanced Spatism District through a pipeline back to the reservoir.
The water project asks Citizen Energy to install 52 miles of new water mains in central Indiana in Marion, Hendricks, Boone and Hamilton counties. The system would rely on several sources, including Eagle Creek Reservoir, Citizens Reservoir, Geist and Morse Reservoirs, the White River, and groundwater.
The project would also include building booster stations, adding 450 hydrants and new water storage facilities, and upgrading the White River North and TW Moses water treatment plants. It is being financed by loans through the Indiana State Drinking Water Revolving Fund and requires 450 landowner easements.
project Objections Munt
“Early construction activities began in late 2025 and continue to ramp up across multiple projects within Citizens-Lebanon’s overall water supply program,” said Citizens Energy spokesman Benjamin Easley.
The amount of water drawn from Eagle Creek Reservoir would increase from 10 million gallons per day to 11 to 13 million gallons per day, Citizens Energy says.
Residents near Eagle Creek Park, where the reservoir is located, have raised objections to the project, including the return of treated wastewater to the reservoir.
Indianapolis resident Lou Ann Baker, who described the park as “an oasis in the middle of a lot of urban development” with a wide range of recreational uses, said “the decisions [about the project] they were done without any intervention from the residents and even without them knowing”.
Dan Boots, a city council member who wrote his 10-page letter signed by 21 of 24 members, said: “We just want everyone to sit down, cool off, let the emotion down and talk objectively about how to find a solution to all these concerns.”
Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, a consumer and environmental advocacy group, is questioning decisions related to what he says could become Indiana’s largest and most expensive economic development project, estimating it is spending $1 billion in taxpayer funds on the new industrial district. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. “has chosen to locate a massive industrial park in a county that does not have sufficient water resources to support large-scale development,” he said.
As for the letter from county council members, Olson said they “are responding to their constituents, but they didn’t get involved when it would have made a difference.”
On its website, the coalition says the state development corporation has “hijacked Indiana’s water policy.” which “is being discussed and formulated in secret, without any public intervention”.
In defense of the project, Citizens Energy says it will “enable continued regional growth in central Indiana through the attraction and retention of jobs and good-paying opportunities,” adding that “regionalizing water service in central Indiana promotes affordability, including in Marion County.”
Easley noted that the company is not an official decision-maker for Lebanon Utilities’ wastewater treatment or discharge agreements.
“Lebanon Utilities is responsible for wastewater treatment design, permitting and discharge decisions, in coordination with state and federal regulators,” he says. “However, as Citizens [Energy] maintains stewardship as a core value, we are working as a program stakeholder with Lebanon Utilities to ensure no decisions are made that negatively impact our customers or the Eagle Creek Reservoir ecosystem.”
Consultant MKSK prepared a master plan for the Unlimited Exploration/Advanced Pace District. Easley declined to name contractors working on the water project, except that the company “has engaged local and national companies and contractors for the design and construction projects of this multifaceted program.”
