Amazon's request to dewater millions of gallons from data center near New Carlisle tabled

Read full story here: 35 million gallons of water per day, that’s the latest request from Amazon to drain a wetland. That request is connected to what's called dewatering of their data center construction site near New Carlisle. Community members raised their concerns during a packed meeting Tuesday morning. The amount of water that Amazon is requesting to dewater their site is raising concerns by many throughout the county. Community members are unsure of the lasting impacts on the Nespodziany ditch and neighboring areas. “You can't withdraw this kind ofdiscard. This kind of water, this amount of water, without hurting a lot of people,” said Dan Caruso. The 35-million gallons of water per day request is the equivalent of 1,452,000 gallons per hour. This would be to dewater the southwest corner of the Amazon Data Center near New Carlisle. Dewatering is often done to remove surface or ground water from a construction site. “All the people this will affect, hopefully the word will get out, and we can have more say in the matter. And find options for it. I don't want to stop the work up there. But I want to find options to split this water up, so it doesn't overburden all one person," said Brian Bailey, neighbor. This work would be an extension to a current approved permit for the Northside of the site. Tuesday’s request would bring an additional 365 days of pumping. “Can the ditch handle it? Can the Kankakee? The whole watershed handle it? Certain times of the year, yes. Other times of the year when we have a heavy rainfall event, three to six inches or more. Yeah, maybe not,” said Randy Matthys, Vice Chairperson. In the original agreement, the St. Joseph County drainage board could ask Amazon to stop the dewatering process. While they have not had to do that yet, it acts as a safeguard. “So, if we had a heavy rain event than we would ask them to stop dewatering,” said Matthys. Some people suggested looking at other options. “We have to have some sort of guidance. So, everybody can live through this,” said Brian Bailey, neighbor. “And there are three other ditches that they can split this water up into that are viable options.” The drainage board tabled the request from Amazon for a later date. They said they need more information and their questions answered before taking a vote. https://wsbt.com/news/local/amazon-data-center-dewater-water-pump-gallons-nespodziany-ditch-concerns-community-farmers-fields-crops-request-tabled-discussion-review-clarification-new-carlisle-st-joseph-county-indiana _________________ Stay up to date by following our social media: WSBT 22 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WSBTNews WSBT 22 on X: https://twitter.com/WSBT WSBT 22 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wsbt/ For more information, visit https://wsbt.com/ Have a news tip? Send it directly to our newsroom: wsbtnews@wsbt.com WSBT is an IN based station and a CBS Television affiliate owned and operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair, Inc. is one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today. Sinclair owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 163 television stations in 77 markets, after pending transactions. Sinclair's television group reaches approximately 38.7% of US television households and includes FOX, ABC, MyTV, CW, CBS, NBC, Univision and Azteca affiliates.