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Farmers urge St. Joseph County drainage board to delay Amazon site dewatering permit after 2024 flooding complaints
Summary
Farmers and residents told the drainage board that dewatering tied to the IEC 3/Amazon site caused flooding and crop damage in 2024 and demanded written data, a letter of intent on crop compensation and independent review; the board voted to table the permit and asked the company to return with clearer data and commitments.
The St. Joseph County Drainage Board on the meeting floor on March 16 heard hours of public concerns and technical testimony about a renewed dewatering permit for work on the IEC 3 parcel tied to Amazon/AWS, and ultimately voted to table the request so the applicant could return with clearer data and a written commitment addressing crop compensation.
Farmers were the meeting’s chief voices. Ryan Bailey, a farmer who gave his address as 30970 Johnson Road, told the board that when contractors pumped the ditch in 2024 “we had our pumps running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week” during the driest months, that he logged roughly 2,800 extra pump hours and that fields suffered lost acreage and poor yields. “If we had to shut them off, the water would have been over top of our fields,” Bailey said, urging the board to prevent a repeat.
Several other…
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