Bloomington to receive environmental upgrade

Bloomington is getting an environmental makeover.

Hoosier Environmental Council Executive Director Jesse Kharbanda visited Bloomington on Monday and Tuesday to inform the community about future plans for the city.

The HEC is an environmental organization dedicated to making Indiana a better and safer place to live, Kharbanda said.

The organization plans to undertake many of the environmental challenges in Bloomington by educating and advocating for businesses and programs, Kharbanda said.

“The Hoosier Environmental Council works with the IU-based Conservation Law Center on policies to improve water quality and pollution,” he said. “Our staff works with Bloomington-based businesses, like Mann Solar Energy Systems, on clean energy solutions.”

Kharbanda said the HEC pursues initiatives that will improve water quality, increase the number of clean energy job opportunities and preserve open land in Bloomington. Some HEC plans include advocating for companies to cut blue-green algae pollution and reducing the state’s dependence on coal.

With these projects, the lakes around Bloomington, such as Lemon, Monroe and Griffy, will benefit from cleaner water quality and decreased amounts of mercury contaminations, he said.

“We’ve been longstanding advocates for policy solutions like the Renewable Electricity Standard and Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Bonds,” he said.

Kharbanda said by providing more affordable ways for businesses to invest in energy-saving devices, such as PACE, would help reduce the energy bills for businesses and customers.

Kharbanda and the HEC have plans to better the I-69 highway situation as they are trying to lower the destruction costs of the road. The road will destroy more than 1,000 acres of forestry in Monroe and Greene counties and take away millions of dollars from the repairing of exiting roads and bridges, Kharbanda said.

“New terrain I-69 has been a concern of ours for many years,” Kharbanda said. “We’re playing an active role in the Sustainable Natural Resources Task Force, which has an important emphasis on forestry.”

In addition to the new highway projections, Kharbanda said he hopes the HEC will be one of Indiana’s largest cities, Bloomington will one day have world-class public transit systems. The goal is to form new legislation that will help provide funding for bus rapid transits around the city and a light-rail train to connect Bloomington with Indianapolis or Lafayette, Kharbanda said.

The plans for Bloomington are long-term and huge improvements to the city, he said.

“Increasing renewable energy investments in Indiana will have the added impact of creating better jobs focused more on energy efficiency components,” Kharbanda said. “It will help IU grads and others work in a clean energy economy right here in our own state.”