It was about a year ago that West Lafayette city councilman David Sanders realized how much could be done locally to oppose the LEAP pipeline, a proposed water pipeline that would pump millions of gallons from the Wabash River to support development in Boone County, Indiana.
“Last year, around this time, there was a meeting of the League of Women voters where they discussed this issue and people were outraged this was happening,” Sanders said. “We were not informed. We were not consulted.”
Sanders said he started raising the question: What could we do about it? But it was up to the state legislature.
“I wanted to know if there was a role for local city government in this and they said no,” he said. “So, some other groups started also expressing concerns. And then I thought, yes, there is a role for city government that we should actively oppose this measure.”
It wasn’t just Sanders who opposed the issue; it was the whole council. A resolution passed unanimously, he said.
“I got more letters, more phone calls, more texts. More messages,” he said. “And I thought, ‘You know, this is this is very important to a lot of people here locally, and we should organize to oppose it.’”
From community opposition and a room at the West Lafayette Public Library, Stop the Water Steal was formed.
Stop the Water Steal
Stop the Water Steal is a non-profit, non-partisan group opposing the LEAP pipeline. It is not currently but hoping to be registered as a 501©4 group, allowing it tax exemption as a social welfare group.
The group has three officers, Noemi Ybarra, secretary of the group, said. The officers and other members are all volunteers.
“This has always been a community group,” she said.
Stop the Water Steal has written letters opposing the LEAP pipeline to state representatives and created a website and email list to update supporters among other actions.
Ybarra said they’ve me with other groups opposing the LEAP pipeline to strategize together.
“I don’t think having additional groups is a problem,” she said. “There are already multiple groups working on this.”
Stop the Water Steal is willing to work with any group to achieve its goal of stopping the LEAP pipeline.
“We always have a need for more volunteers. People’s lives change; sometimes they have time and sometimes they don’t,” she said. “We want to encourage all Hoosiers to get involved with this mission to protect water and advocate for transparency with the spending of our tax money.”
‘Looking forward’ for Sanders
Sanders, who was originally involved with Stop the Water Steal, recently parted ways with the group. He said he did not like the group’s structure.
Now, Sanders is forming another LEAP opposition group. Its first meeting will be Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the West Lafayette Public Library.
“The first time I wasn’t sure there was enough public interest to create an organization,” he said. “I thought an organization was very important because it gives a permanent address for people who are interested in working on the issue and allowing us to create alliances with other groups and also for the media to be able to contact us.”
His goal for the first meeting is to start with organizational framework and then recruit volunteers to participate, building up areas he thought were weak spots for Stop the Water Steal.
“We certainly learned about how to operate,” Sanders said, referring to his time in the older organization. “I mean, my idea for the original organization was it was going to be really democratic.”
Sanders wanted volunteers to take charge of their roles in Stop the Water Steal, but said it became a “top-down, one-person organization.”
“That’s not what this is going to be about,” he said.
Sanders also plans to register the new organization as a 501©4, social welfare organization.
“We’re also going to continue to try to bring awareness of these issues,” Sanders said. “Part of that will be reaching out to legislators around the state to try and find out whether they’re aware of the issue and where they stand on the issue as we go forward.”
“One of the things I really wanted to do, for example, was to thank the Bloomington city council for their passing the resolution because there was a certain amount of opposition to it from the mayor,” he said. “They actually overrode her veto.”
He also hopes to see Purdue students take action on the issue.
“I value the participation of students in these sort of organizations,” he said. “They bring fresh ideas, enthusiasm, energy and especially when we’re talking about social media, skills.”
Despite Sanders and Stop the Water Steal’s differences, Sanders acknowledged the group’s initial success in bringing interest and attention to to the pipeline. He also hopes to work with other organizations interested in the issue.
“We want to work with them on a common agenda,” he said. “It’s about looking forward.”
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