Hydrologist Martin Risch, 71, remembers the early days of Eagle Creek Park.
When it opened in 1972, it was the fourth-largest municipal park in the nation, with 3,900 acres of forest and 1,400 acres of water, including the Eagle Creek Reservoir.
Risch was a park ranger at Eagle Creek Park in his early 20s. He helped build trails and operate a Youth Conservation Corps camp.
“We didn’t have a lot of the upstream communities back then. There was a lot of farmland around Eagle Creek,” Risch said. “We didn’t have any of the fish-eating birds out there.”
Risch eventually left Indianapolis to work for the U.S. Geological Survey. The job took him around the country over decades.
He eventually made his way back to the city and moved into a home just outside Eagle Creek Park.
Now retired, Risch is a member of the Eagle Creek Park Advisory Committee, a group created by Indianapolis in the 1970s to advocate on behalf of the park to the Indy Parks board.
One major item concerning Risch, fellow committee members and people living near the park is the negotiation of a new water withdrawal contract that sets the limit on how much water Citizens Energy Group can withdraw from the Eagle Creek Reservoir.
With projects like the Boone County LEAP district drawing millions of gallons of water per day from Indianapolis sources, and the potential construction of more data centers in the Indianapolis area, they’re concerned a bad deal could allow too much water to be withdrawn from the reservoir.
That would mean less drinking water available for Indianapolis residents, and harm to the biological integrity of the reservoir that would affect fish and birds that depend on it for survival.
Mayor Joe Hogsett’s office has said the city won’t begin negotiating a new contract until it completes a comprehensive review of the current contract and evaluates potential impacts to the reservoir.
The current contract ends July 1. On June 24, the Board of Public Works will vote on whether to extend the contract for a year and allow a yearly automatic extension until 2031.
At the June 10 board meeting, Risch and other concerned residents told Board of Public Works members what they want the city to consider when it begins its negotiations.
“I’ve been hanging around Eagle Creek for 50 years, and I feel that the ecosystem at Eagle Creek has taken years to get to this modern, successful, healthy balance,” Risch told the board. “What you do is going to affect the future and this reservoir.”
What’s in the current water contract?
In 1971, the city signed an agreement with the Indianapolis Water Company that allowed the company to withdraw a maximum of 19.8 million gallons of water per day from the reservoir.
That agreement was later amended in 2011, when the city sold its water and sewer systems to Citizens Energy Group. It allows the company to withdraw more than the maximum allowed as long as the Department of Public Works gives its approval.
According to Citizens Energy Group, that has only happened once.
“Citizens has never requested a variance from the annual withdrawal limit. A small variance from the monthly maximum limit has been requested once in June 2012 during a drought,” said Ben Easley, Citizens Energy Group’s corporate and public affairs coordinator.
With just .09 inches of rainfall the entire month, June was Indianapolis’ driest on record, according to the National Weather Service.
Despite a looming deadline, city officials have decided not to begin negotiations on a new contract until the city performs a comprehensive review of the current agreement and more data on the Eagle Creek Reservoir.
The city hired hydrologist Jack Wittman to perform the review, which will also evaluate how much water the reservoir can hold, how water withdrawals associated with the LEAP district will affect the reservoir and how treated water sent back from the LEAP district will affect water levels and water quality in the reservoir.
Once the review is completed, the city will begin to negotiate a new contract. The Board of Public Works will ultimately vote to approve or deny the contract.
“Subsequent negotiations with Citizens will be focused squarely on balancing the city’s key interests here — maintaining flood storage capacity, supporting downstream releases, and providing a reliable water supply for the community,” said Brian Cavanaugh, DPW’s general counsel.
Residents’ concerns
During a public comment period June 10, several people expressed concerns about what the city should consider when negotiating a new contract.
Risch told the board he believes a new contract should work to protect wildlife at the park, especially avoiding wild fluctuations in water levels. He said water levels that are too low or unpredictable could cause a ripple effect in the food chain that would hurt wildlife.
“Certainly, the fabric of this ecosystem is the water,” Risch told the board. “The water levels in the spring are high enough to inundate the places where the fish go to spawn, so we need to maintain that capability, because it’s the fish that are part of this whole food web out there.”
He told the board that he hopes their future decisions are based on facts, not politics.
“I love that park, and it’s been a part of my life for a long time. I want it to be the same kind of park I’m enjoying today when my grandkids go out there and they’re old like me,” Risch said. “Let’s have a plan. Let’s make some good decisions now.”
Pike Township resident Sarah Phillips said the city should ensure that independent deals negotiated by Citizens Energy with other cities, like its deal with Lebanon Utilities for the LEAP district, don’t affect how much water is withdrawn from the reservoir.
“I don’t know how they have the right to go out and make those agreements, but certainly putting parameters around them (is important). If we ever do get in a drought condition, and they’re going out making other agreements with other communities, are we still obligated by that contract to give that to them first?” she said.
Protect Pike Township volunteer Megan Anderson said the city should incorporate protections from discharges from the LEAP district into a future contract, an online dashboard to check on water withdrawals from the reservoir and an extension of the city’s drought ordinance to Lebanon.
“I am very concerned there is no long-term plan to meet the water supply needs or the discharge needs of the LEAP site, and there’s really no short-term plan that any of us want here in Indy,” she said.
The contract extension vote
The Board of Public Works will hold a vote on extending the current water withdrawal agreement with Citizens Energy Group June 24.
The meeting will be held at 1 p.m. at the Public Assembly Room on the second floor of the City-County Building, at 200 E. Washington St.
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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