Indianapolis in Atlanta or Los Angele's boat? (Hammond, Munster: to buy, prices)

[Broadrippleguy]

Water utility exploring drastic options to satisfy long-term demand | 2012-07-28 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com
interesting article.
as Indianapolis continues to grow and prosper you need more water to keep up with the demand....
heres a thought. lets pipe in water from Lake Michigan. Indiana doesnt have huge mountains so you dont need big pumps to move water from lake Michigan to Indianapolis.
Would it be expensive at first? of course but if Chicago can use Lake Michigan to keep its feet wet who says Indy cant *take* some of that haha.

[Chicago76]

Why don't we just pipe in Lake Michigan water?

It's pretty obvious. The water authorities won't allow. Don't know if you've noticed, but the states and municipalities around Lake Michigan are in a huff over suburban areas of Milwaukee and Chicago outside of the Lake Michigan watershed trying to tap in to the lake. There are many areas less than 30 miles from the lake shore that can't get in. Why would they allow Indianapolis to tap in?

Waukesha at impasse in Lake Michigan water fight - JSOnline
http://www.isws.illinois.edu/wsp/faq...kmichwater.gif

This isn't the same thing as ATL or LA taking water from rural areas. There are some big dogs in this fight that would never allow it: DT Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Buffalo, Rochester, Toronto, Hamilton ON, Montreal...not to mention a lot of state tourism in MI, WI, MN. It ain't happenin'.

[Broadrippleguy]

wow good point Chicago76....... guess lake Michigan's water is *special* or *priceless*
then plan B would be to pump water from a few surrounding lakes or the Ohio River.

[Chicago76]

Originally Posted by Broadrippleguy

wow good point Chicago76....... guess lake Michigan's water is *special* or *priceless*
then plan B would be to pump water from a few surrounding lakes or the Ohio River.

It is a priceless resource, but that's not the reason for the fight. The general principle is you can't take water from basins where your runoff doesn't go. Even before they reversed the course of the Chicago river, Oak Park (and even some of the W side of Chicago's) runoff ran to the Mississippi...not the Lake.

Anybody sitting outside of the watershed can't take water without a variance.

Regardless, its an expensive (and dumb) idea. That's what resevoirs are for. Indy's water comes from Morse/Geist/Eagle Creek and the White River. If they need more, they'll build another lake. They won't pipe it up from the Ohio River or anywhere else. If the Midwest turns into wasteland, then people in central Indiana won't be piping anything anywhere. They'll be moving to the Great Lakes basin.

[rrah]

Several years ago there was a plan to try to send water from Lake Monroe to Indianapolis. Even your beloved gov saw the stupidity of building a pipeline that was 60 or so miles, let alone from Lake Michigan. Read the last two paragraphs.

Indianapolis utility could buy Lake Monroe water | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com

Perhaps you can ask your favorite mayor about this water issue:

Indianapolis Times: Has Ballard cut a backroom deal to sell water company? It sure looks like it

[sunnyandcloudydays]

BroadRipple,

I am sure your well aware of the astronomical fees associated with purchasing water from a nearby community.

The city that actually is shore side of Lake Michigan has to sell the water, any random town just cant come strolling in to buy Lake Michigan water.

The suburbs have to purchase the water from Chicago and then that suburb may sell it to another suburb.

I do believe Hammond has water that it can sell to a nearby community like Munster and I believe Chicago Heights gets its water from Hammond.

As with anything else the municipalities are realizing this is an item that could be in short supply in the future and low and behold prices have increased.

Bottom line the cities along the lake know they have a precious resource and it could lead them to prosper as some industries need vasts amount of water.

Hopefully this summer is just a once in a 50 year time frame and the quaffer's are replenished.
BTW where does indy get water from now ? and how many quaffer's do they have?

On the surface it seems simple but it's rather complicated with all the regulations of the lake.
There is actually a group of states that surround the Great Lakes that have a pact and Indiana is in that pact.

[Broadrippleguy]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

BroadRipple,

I am sure your well aware of the astronomical fees associated with purchasing water from a nearby community.

The city that actually is shore side of Lake Michigan has to sell the water, any random town just cant come strolling in to buy Lake Michigan water.

The suburbs have to purchase the water from Chicago and then that suburb may sell it to another suburb.

I do believe Hammond has water that it can sell to a nearby community like Munster and I believe Chicago Heights gets its water from Hammond.

As with anything else the municipalities are realizing this is an item that could be in short supply in the future and low and behold prices have increased.

Bottom line the cities along the lake know they have a precious resource and it could lead them to prosper as some industries need vasts amount of water.

Hopefully this summer is just a once in a 50 year time frame and the quaffer's are replenished.
BTW where does indy get water from now ? and how many quaffer's do they have?

On the surface it seems simple but it's rather complicated with all the regulations of the lake.
There is actually a group of states that surround the Great Lakes that have a pact and Indiana is in that pact.

i hope so too. finally got some rain up here and the grass is green again!

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Yes, Indeed..

Grass is green here to , but alot of the trees and shrubs have been damaged already.
Not counting the countless fields with bad crops.

Meant to spell aquifer.

[ischyros]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

Hopefully this summer is just a once in a 50 year time frame and the quaffer's are replenished.
BTW where does indy get water from now ? and how many quaffer's do they have?

I believe most of Indy and some of the suburbs get the majority of their water from the three reservoirs. Morse, Geist, and Eagle Creek. That's why their water levels are so low.

[Broadrippleguy]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

Yes, Indeed..

Grass is green here to , but alot of the trees and shrubs have been damaged already.
Not counting the countless fields with bad crops.

Meant to spell aquifer.

thats where for a farmer that irrigation is your friend