opinion

Mounds Lake: It's enough to make one choke

I attended the Delaware County Council forum regarding the proposal to dam the White River in Anderson on May 18. More than 250 people attended and everyone who spoke, including farmers and environmentalists, had good reason to oppose the proposed dam.

The leader of the reservoir effort attended but chose not to speak. He later tweeted, "At Delaware County Meeting. About 250 opposed to the Mounds Lake project here…. Common theme is missing details in the Phase I and Phase II work. We would agree, which is why we are proposing Phase III work."

As a professor of ecology for the past 24 years at Ball State University, I believe this is just baloney.

Damming a river that drains an agricultural watershed will create a shallow body of water so choked with algae that even carp will be gasping for air at the surface. I have seen this pathetic sight paddling on Prairie Creek reservoir, which receives much less farmland runoff than would the proposed Mounds Lake Reservoir.

The agricultural watershed upstream of Anderson has some of the highest fertilizer application rates in the U.S. Factory pig farms dispose of huge quantities of manure on these same fields. This agricultural land has drainage tiles that straight-pipe these pollutants into streams and then the White River.

Combined sewer overflows in Muncie and other towns dump sewage into the river any time it rains. Does a reservoir filled with this water sound like something you would swim in? Mounds Lake fish dinner anyone?

If you want a peek into what a future Mounds Reservoir will look like, take a trip across the Ohio border to Grand Lake St. Mary's. This reservoir also receives run-off from surrounding farmland. Fish populations in this lake are collapsing and algae in the lake are so toxic that the county health department warns against any contact with the water.

The environmental consulting firm working for the Mounds Reservoir project suggests retention dams and constructed wetlands in Delaware County could clean-up such pollutants. But these would impede drainage, increase flooding, and ruin the White River for Daleville and Yorktown.

Dam proponents tell us we need a $27 million Phase III study to determine the feasibility of this reservoir. This is a classic trick to get us to allow this process to continue. As a professor of ecology, I can say there is no doubt the proposed Mounds Lake Reservoir will be an algae-choked, silt-filled, sewer-tainted pond that will degrade the local environment.

This environmental disaster will cost at least $450 million of someone's money. The dam proponents can't say who will pay the bill. Creation of this reservoir will flood parts of Mounds State Park and destroy a dedicated state nature preserve for the first time in the history of Indiana; as if the state has so much nature left we can afford to drown some of it.

The Daleville and Yorktown councils should not even consider joining the proposed commission so they can have "input" to the process. If they don't join, the commission can't be formed and the $27 million for a feasibility study won't be spent. If the process is allowed to continue, proponents will just keep talking about this dumb idea louder and faster until they can convince the gullible to go along. The elected leaders of Daleville and Yorktown need to kill it now.

David C. LeBlanc, is a biology professor at Ball State University.