Countless Indiana-based environmental organizations and experts have come out against SB 389, but that hasn’t given the bill’s main authors—all of whom own or run companies that are members of the Indiana Builders Association—any pause.
Indianapolis’s 15-year, $2 billion stormwater project, DigIndy, will be unable to meet the rainfall demands of a rapidly-changing climate. And now, more than ever, the wetlands are essential in preventing the overflow events the project was designed to address.
Fort Wayne has its own similar stormwater project, started over a decade ago. Will it be able to handle the increasing amount of rainfall due to climate change, combined with the destruction of the state’s wetlands—many of which are located in Northeast Indiana?
The largest cities of Indiana are the lucky ones—they are able to afford massive projects like these (at the taxpayers expense, no doubt). However, the smaller, more rural communities and townships won’t be able to foot the bill. Their residents’ homes will flood, their drinking water polluted, and natural habitats destroyed. Those with more resources may be able to move, but the vast majority of them won’t.
Signing this lobbyist-driven bill into law does nothing for the residents of Indiana, and everything for the Indiana’s Builders Association, who have contributed $390,000 to various campaigns and political parties since 2017.
We urge Governor Holcomb to veto this bill.
Fort Wayne DSA
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