Water shortage hits big business

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Big businesses are also affected by the drought and subsequent water shortage, especially those that need a lot of water to operate.

24-Hour News 8 toured Vertellus, a chemical plant on the city's west side, to see how the company uses water.

Vertellus representative David Wilkes said the company goes through hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day, seven days a week. This company is most concerned with the possibility of a state water emergency if the dry conditions don't improve.

Half of the water used at Vertellus is to make steam; the other half is used in cooling towers.

Wilkes said the company has been in contact with Citizens Water about the water supply since the drought started. Vertellus, he said, is doing small things to conserve water, like not watering the lawn.

But it's also taking large-scale steps, like installing temporary water lines to maximize the uptime of some equipment.

Wilkes said if the company were asked to cut back even more, that would be uncharted territory.

And he worried about employee safety.

“We've never been faced with that before, of course, we've never been faced with a drought or a scenario like this,” Wilkes said. “Employee safety is always top of our list, and we absolutely can't have compromised safety systems like our safety showers, eye washes and of course our fire protection systems are paramount to us.”

He said employees have also been asked to watch out for leaks in all water lines.

But if the company faced mandatory restrictions from Gov. Mitch Daniels, Wilkes said he didn’t know yet what additional steps would be taken.