Drought turns reservoir into parkland

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) - Low water levels have turned parts of Morse Reservoir into parkland.

Grass and weeds have grown so high in one cove that homeowners hired a company to mow the reservoir.

"Over at the other side, the grass was getting tall. Someone thought it would just look nice," said homeowner Gary Meeks.

It's a first for Meeks who moved into the cove 22 years ago. He says water levels in the cove are normally around 3 feet deep.

You don't have to go far to find water. Just cross Little Chicago Road. While the water is there, so are more reminders of the summer drought and the millions of gallons of water pulled from the reservoir.

It will take weeks or months to fill back up.

While the drought hurt businesses associated with summer boating, Mark Ingrassia says it helped his business. He owns the Sandpiper bar in Noblesville. It's a short drive from the water.

"Business has been good because people have been in here instead of on their boats," said Ingrassia.

Citizens Energy Group is looking into ways to conserve more water. The utility says over the next four to five years, it will need an additional 40 million to 50 million gallons of water a day in order to keep up with the population growth. One idea to boost water conservation is to make customers who use the most water, pay higher rates.

Right now, the more water you use, the lower your rate becomes. Citizens says that "water rate model" is an industry standard.

"In order to balance that out and promote conservation, what we are suggesting is
that that would be reversed so the less water you use, the lower your rate would be," said Citizens’ spokeswoman Sarah Holsapple.

Conserving water is important, but to meet future demands, Citizens is also looking at ways to boost supplies.

"Some of those plans include making reservoirs larger, drilling additional wells. We talked about pulling water from the Ohio River or Wabash or even Lake Monroe," Holsapple said.

Holsapple says it's all long term talk of different ideas to consider.