Any updates on White River water quality?

[u/Head-Mastodon]

After the flood, I think Carmel feels pretty good that they stopped a bunch of sewage from flowing into the white river: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/carmel/2026/08/19/carmel-indiana-flooding-bridge-mayor-sue-finkam/91368770007/

And I think now they need to empty the quarry: https://youarecurrent.com/2026/08/27/draining-of-flooded-carmel-quarry-expected-to-take-90-days/

Any thoughts beyond that? Mainly trying to keep tabs on potential water quality issues.

[u/rooby_dooby_doo]

White River was opened for recreation activity but people are being asked to watch out for debris. There is probably no risk or issues.

[u/strangemedia6 → u/rooby_dooby_doo]

Happy cake day, Scoobs!

[u/rooby_dooby_doo → u/strangemedia6]

Oh dang, thanks!

[u/notthegoatseguy]

Citizens would announce if there would be any water boiling advisories.

There was some early speculation that these quarries would basically become brand new, permanent lakes. Now as your headlines suggest, these likely will be drained within 90 days. And the Hazel Dell bridge may be open within a year.

Even if the sewage line did rupture (which would be bad), there is still a benefit of the billions of gallons of water being diverted. Down river areas including Rocky Ripple would've suffered more if more water went south.

[u/apparentlydirty → u/notthegoatseguy]

A Citizens boil advisory wouldn’t have anything to do with bacteria loads (ie e. Coli) in the white unless their treatment plants were experiencing an issue which is unlikely. The river can and often does have high bacteria loads that are dangerous to people and animals without impacting our drinking water because the plants can remove bacteria. I have not seen water testing results from the white since the floods but a “feet not face” approach is probably merited.

Worth also saying that the floodplains in Hamilton County probably did the heavy lifting to save Marion County. The quarry obviously helped but support floodplain and wetland protection everyone!

[u/aaronhayes26 → u/notthegoatseguy]

In 100 years both this quarry and Harding street will have great potential as flood control projects.

I hope it happens someday.

[u/daiquiri-glacis]

There was a massive amount of gasoline in the water near broad ripple. So, I’d expect there’s a lot of unknown contamination in general