The Indiana Water Resources Research Center

Indiana has a plentiful water supply which includes 35,673 miles of rivers and streams, over 105,000 acres of publicly owned lakes, reservoirs and ponds and 59 miles of Great Lakes shoreline. Yet we continue to struggle to find ways to manage our water so that we will meet increasing demands for more reliable, cleaner water and to restore, preserve, and maintain more of the services that our bodies of water provide including; clean drinking water, recreation, flood peak mitigation, wetland habitat, and others. In general, ground-water quality is good and groundwater is very safe. Indiana surface waters resources have undergone extensive assessment and a new surface water monitoring program administered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management was implemented in 2001. Indiana water users withdraw approximately 10,700 million gallons of water per day from our ground and surface water resources. Surface water for energy production (water used for cooling in coal-fired power plants) accounts for the largest part (65%) of the state’s total reported water use. Indiana continues to rank among the highest industrial self-supplied water users in the U.S. (2,300 Mgal/day) and together with Louisiana accounts for 32 percent of the total fresh surface-water withdrawals in the country.

Notice: The 2013 grants program is up and running.  Once again, we are most interested in the Wabash River Watershed. Please visit the Funding section section for more information.

Wabash River Research Consortium 

The Wabash River Research Consortium is active and we are currently developing guidance documents and 2013 plans.  Contact Ron Turco or Kent Wamsley for more information (email Kent).