Citizens Water has been conducting an Integrated Water Resources Planning effort over the past year or so, and recently presented its findings to CW’s Service Advisory Board.
Executive Vice-president for External Affairs Jeff Willman made a presentation February 19th at the regular monthly meeting of the SAB.
He covered a lot of material regarding supply and demand for future water supply in the central Indiana area, and it was interesting to hear more of the details about where the supplies come from and what the level of demand might be in the years ahead.
The planning horizon year was 25 years out— 2037. Their analysis concluded, in part, that “Regional Sources” of supply, i.e. a regional reservoir or a pipeline to the Ohio or Wabash rivers would not be needed during the period under their forecast growth rate of 0.65% per year. It indicated the existing local sources of water would be adequate for the next 30 to 40 years.
It’s unfortunate that this information was not made available to the Indiana Finance Authority when it was considering the CED’s application for drinking water planning funding. It’s also unfortunate that the IFA, nor apparently any other state agency, bothered to consult with Citizens Water about future supply needs before Governor Pence decided to award $650,000 to the CED for another feasibility study.
The slides used in the presentation are available upon request. We’ll inquire whether Citizens Water intends to produce a more detailed/explanatory report on this planning information.
Heart of the River 