Indianapolis, IN
The Twisted Tale of Indianapolis’ White River
First-time visitors to Indianapolis might look at the White River and see a natural oasis in a vast urban landscape. They could spend a day paddling through some of Indianapolis’ most populated neighborhoods, but not see another person on the water. Towering oak trees line the banks for much of its path through the city, in the summer offering some needed respite from the sweltering sun. Underneath the clear water, visitors might see dozens of carp, sunfish, and smallmouth bass dart beneath their boat as a blue heron stands in the shallows, waiting for its next meal.
This idyllic scene is just the latest chapter of the White River saga, which has almost as many twists and turns as the waterway itself: Historic blunders. Massive pollution. Unchecked environmental racism. A $2 billion infrastructure project called DigIndy promises to solve many of the problems facing the river. But as the pollution decreases, city officials’ desires to use the river as an economic driver and recreational amenity continue to increase. After years of living next to polluted waterways, the questions for the surrounding residents are now: Will they be able to afford to stay and enjoy the revitalized river? And with other contaminants continuing to flow into the water unchecked, combined with centuries of neglect and abuse, just how clean is the river actually?
Known as the Wapahani by the Indigenous Miami Nation, the White River was a major reason European settlers laid the foundations of Indianapolis here more than two centuries ago. After quickly realizing the river was too shallow for shipping goods, they found other, ultimately much more damaging, ways to utilize it.
Almost from the start, Indianapolis sewage discharged directly into the river, along with industrial waste from factories and slaughterhouses. As the city grew, so did the amount of pollution, becoming a problem that generations of officials believed was too big to solve, a mindset that would continue into the 1980s and 1990s. Reports from the time described the surface of the river routinely being coated with a “black scum,” while “bubbles of gas rise to the surface,” according to late local historian Paul Mullins.
With the river too dirty to safely swim or recreate in, beginning in the 1920s the city constructed more than 20 public swimming pools—all but one of which were earmarked for white residents only. Black residents had two choices: the Douglass Park pool or Belmont Beach, the city’s unofficial Black beach. The beach was located on one of the most polluted spots on the river, so children often swam in water contaminated by dead fish and human feces.
In the 1950s, Indianapolis constructed a series of combined sewage and storm water sewers; in the ensuing decades, every time a large rain event would occur, human waste would back up and spill out into the waterways. The stench coming off the river and its tributaries—such as Fall Creek—after a rainstorm was enough to make even the strongest person retch.
After years of mostly white residents on the northside of Indianapolis complaining about their own sewage backups in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the city surreptitiously began piping more than two million gallons of sewage annually away from wealthier neighborhoods and into Fall Creek, which drained into the White River. It’s no coincidence the surrounding neighborhoods were inhabited by minority and low-income families. The racist overtones couldn’t be ignored, local historian and advocate Leon Bates told Sierra. That’s when the federal government stepped in.
A group of social- and environmental-justice advocates filed a complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency, alleging the sewage issues disproportionately affected minority residents. The EPA agreed, and in 2006, mandated Indianapolis solve the issues once and for all. In 2011, Citizens Energy Group began to oversee the $2 billion DigIndy project. Six huge tunnels totaling 28 miles would store up to 250 million gallons of wastewater before being treated at the Southport Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. DigIndy is slated to wrap up in 2025 with the completion of the Fall Creek and Pogues Run tunnels, the last major sewage-overflow contributors to be remediated.
Residents are already seeing huge improvements. After a massive fish kill in 1999, marine life has returned to the river. Routine volunteer cleanup events help remove tires, old mattresses, and other trash recklessly discarded on and around the river. A canoe and kayak rental shop opened on the banks earlier in 2023, encouraging more people to explore the river. After nearly 200 years of being one of the most polluted waterways in the US, the White River received a C grade for overall health (in Indiana, a C student is called a Hoosier valedictorian). With E. coli levels still dangerously high, the water is clean enough for boating, but not swimming. Most of the experts who spoke to Sierra admitted it likely never will be. And yet, things are looking up enough that along with fish and birds, humans are also returning to utilize the river.
“I’m on the river three or four times a week,” says Ed Fujawa, author of “Vanished Indianapolis” and a local resident.
In November, officials broke ground on the $13 million Riverside Adventure Park, which will include boat ramps and trails for hiking and biking. And Belmont Beach has also been resurrected, this time as a pop-up park run by the city’s parks department. Talks are ongoing between the city and residents of the Haughville neighborhood about making the site a permanent park.
“[The Belmont Beach] project has always been led by Haughville residents, for Haughville residents,” says Ebony Chappel, Friends of Belmont Beach executive director. “The president of our board is a fourth-generation child of Haughville and I’m third generation … We’re aware and sensitive to concerns from others in the community, which is why we’re always including their thoughts in the forefront of everything we do.”
Some residents have expressed concern that the much-anticipated river improvements could lead to gentrification. After years of living next to the horribly polluted river, the resulting cleanup and renewal could lead to long-suffering residents being priced out of their homes. Both the city and Haughville neighborhood group are optimistic that won’t happen, but Bates remains skeptical.
“We’ve already seen people get priced out of the neighborhoods” nearby, Bates says, adding that Indianapolis should proactively make efforts to slow or stop widespread gentrification, such as freezing property taxes for long-term Haughville residents until they die or sell the property.
The city’s White River Vision Plan promises to “explore the enormous potential of our river to enhance regional vibrancy, ecological integrity, livability, and economic vitality.” Tourism and city economic officials have traveled as far away as Singapore to study how communities best use their rivers, says Carmen Lethig, Long-Range Planning Administrator for Indianapolis. In the works for riverside developments are plans for a multimillion-dollar retail and entertainment complex centered around a new soccer stadium, as well as the new corporate headquarters for a pharmaceutical company. But there doesn’t seem to be much, if any, political will to improve the water quality even further; surface level improvements seem to be enough.
One of the most polluted states in the nation, Indiana has the most miles of rivers and streams deemed too polluted to swim in of any state, according to a report by the Environmental Integrity Project. Pollution from farm runoff—which contains herbicides, fertilizers, and animal waste—and other contaminants continue to flow into the White River from upstream.
Testing should be done daily, says Sierra Club Heartland Group chair Jesse Kirkham, as the pollution levels can vary wildly day-to-day. But water-quality testing by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in the White River and its tributaries has dropped precipitously over the years for lack of funding. Volunteers with the Sierra Club, White River Alliance, and other groups have picked up some of that slack. Considering its history, the White River’s comeback thus far is nothing short of miraculous, but there’s still a long way to go before a true happy ending can be written.
INDIANAPOLIS — Salt and plow truck drivers work tirelessly through winter to keep the roads clear. Have you ever wondered how they prepare for their shift?
Indianapolis Department of Public Works is currently running twelve-hour rotating shifts. This is to keep up with multiple rounds of ice, snow, and cold temperatures.
WRTV went to the 11 a.m. shift change at one of the DPW’s buildings on Thursday.
WRTV
As B-shift employees exited the building, groups of A-shifters filtered in and waited for their group briefing.
“A shift, good morning, good morning!” greeted William Walker, superintendent of District 3.
Walker was speaking to the group of incoming A-shift employees. They gathered in a large circle around Walker. Some stood; others found benches or couches to lounge on through the meeting.
Walker described the forecast and potential impacts on all the workers.
“The game plan today is the weather advisory is in effect,” Walker said. “Snow expected late tonight, continuing into Friday morning. There’s a potential for sticking on untreated pavement.”
WRTV
Walker went on to take roll call and give drivers their assignments for the day.
“You’re going to get your trucks, check them out, make sure they’re fueled up, have salt in them,” Walker spoke to the group of drivers. “Ready to go when we deploy at three o’clock today.”
After the meeting, drivers went outside to the row of waiting salt and plow trucks. Some performed maintenance, others were doing walk-arounds to ensure all their equipment was working properly.
WRTV
Today’s challenge was the shifting weather: from treating for freezing drizzle in the morning to focusing on what they call the ‘snow fight’ in the evening.
Dewayne Clemmons, Chief Union Steward, shared what happens once the drivers are deployed.
“It depends on the inclement weather that we get,” Clemmons said. “We approach it differently.”
“There’s times that we’ve gotten so much snow that we just pause the salting, and just go strictly into a plowing operation, because at that point, all we’re doing is just wasting salt,” Clemmons continued.
WRTV
Adam Pinsker, spokesperson for DPW, shared more of the process.
“When the snow comes, they’ll be out plowing.,” Pinsker said of the crews. “That’ll start as soon as the first bit of snow comes down. It can be tricky because some parts of the city, like the last snow event we had, certain parts of the city got three or four inches, and other parts got less than two inches. So it does vary by where you are in Indianapolis.”
Decisions to pause salting and move to plowing come from the Operations team. This is communicated to the different districts and ultimately communicated to each driver.
Even though the group of drivers has a plan when leaving the briefing at the start of the shift, the plan often shifts as the forecast unfolds.
In Thursday night’s instance, A-shifters will continue plowing roads until 11 p.m., when B-shift returns for their next 12-hour shift.
The work doesn’t stop once the snow has been plowed.
“Then we go back to salting, to start breaking it up, and try to get it down to bare pavement,” continued Dewayne Clemmons.
From December 1 through April 1, drivers are not allowed to take scheduled vacations. This is in addition to working the rotating 12-hour shifts when the weather demands it.
WRTV
It’s a lot of work, but there is a support team for the drivers. There were countless other workers on-site at the changing of shifts.
“We also have Indianapolis Fleet Services. They’re there to make sure that these vehicles are maintenanced if there’s a problem,” Pinsker told WRTV. “We have laborers who work back here at the salt barns and in the facilities. We have supervisors who are out here, so it takes an entire team to support our drivers and make sure they have what they need to succeed in this snow fight.”
During the A-shift prep meeting, Clemmons encouraged the group.
“It looks like we may be in this until Sunday,” Clemmons said. “It don’t look like it’s going to be as long as our last snow fight. We do appreciate you guys coming in. We’re spending more time with each other than we’re spending with our own families. So again, it doesn’t go unnoticed.”
WRTV
What can everyday drivers do to help these hardworking DPW drivers during their next snow fight?
“When these trucks are out on the roads, just give them their space, because they’re trying to make the roads safe for the city of Indianapolis,” Clemmons concluded.
There used to be a holiday tradition in Precious Sarver’s home. Two Christmas trees. One for her, one for the kids.
This year, there’s only one tree.
It cost $5 at the dollar store. And it’s sitting on a table in the family’s eastside hotel room, where they’ve been living for more than a month.
“I do everything right,” Sarver said through tears, “and I end up here.”
Sarver, 46, said she and her three children had no choice after a landlord forced them out in hopes of charging more in rent to the next tenant.
Sarver spent some time looking for another place to live, but even the search is expensive. She estimated spending a couple hundred dollars just on application fees. The housing search became even more difficult after the death of her mother.
Now, Sarver is paying $343 each week for the hotel room. There are two full beds, an air mattress, TV, fridge and microwave.
“Look where I’m at,” she said. “I never would’ve thought in a million years that I’d be homeless.”
Sarver has already told her kids that Christmas will have to wait this year. That was after not being able to make them a Thanksgiving meal.
But the tree wasn’t optional. It’s an all-white miniature version, sharing table space with boxes of cereal and paper plates. The family loves the holiday season. Her oldest son counts down the days until B105.7 FM starts playing Christmas music.
“We do the Christmas thing,” Sarver said.
The only thing missing from the tree is ornaments. Those are sitting in one of the two storage units that Sarver is paying $180 for each month.
‘I can’t be the only one’
Sarver said she’s not the only one struggling at the hotel. There’s a mother with five or six kids, and another woman who just gave birth.
“I can’t be the only one,” she said. “I gotta imagine older people going through this is insane.”
They’re part of what homelessness advocates sometimes call the “hidden homeless.” They live out of their cars or double up with friends and family. Or, in Sarver’s case, they end up in an extended-stay hotel.
“Most of the people that clean this place live here with their kids,” she said.
Even outside of the hotel, Sarver can see the extent of the homelessness crisis in Indianapolis. There’s a woman who sits in the cold with a blanket, Sarver said, and no socks.
“So I stopped and gave her a McChicken,” she said. “I don’t have anything else.”
‘I know God’s got a plan’
Sarver said she takes pride in doing the right thing: paying bills on time, helping others, volunteering at a local school.
Things only got worse for Sarver’s family when she accidentally dropped $520 in the hotel hallway.
Security footage shows a man picking it up and walking away.
“That was my phone bill, food money, gas,” she said.
That money also could have helped Sarver cover a security deposit, which she said is one of the biggest obstacles between her family and a home. Plus, Sarver has a nerve condition in both legs that requires her to use a cane, so finding a home isn’t only about money. She also needs something accessible.
Sarver collects about $1,900 a month in disability payments between her and her youngest son, who has special needs. And she gets help paying rent through the Indianapolis Housing Agency’s Section 8 program.
But the program doesn’t help with a security deposit.
For that, Sarver said she’d need to come up with about $1,700.
It’s hard to see where that money will come from.
“But I know God’s got a plan,” she said. “It’s gotta be something else for us.”
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Tyler Fenwick covers housing and labor. Contact him at 317-766-1406 or tyler.fenwick@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @ty_fenwick and Bluesky @tyfenwick.bsky.social.
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Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers throws against the Las Vegas Raiders during a game at Allegiant Stadium on Dec. 13, 2020 in Las Vegas. Rivers, now 44 years old, has signed a practice contract with the Colts in hopes of returning to the NFL for the first time since 2021.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
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In July, former quarterback Philip Rivers was asked if he could still play an NFL game, during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show.
“Oh yeah. I’m a little heavier than I was, but I could get through a game,” Rivers replied, adding with a laugh. “Now, I may need a wheelchair the next morning.”
YouTube
But now the sports world is absorbing the news that Rivers, a grandfather at age 44, has signed a practice contract with the Indianapolis Colts. The team recently lost its starting quarterback, Daniel Jones, for the rest of the season, due to injury, endangering its playoff hopes.
Here are some key numbers that provide some context into Rivers’ return:
21: Years since Rivers’ first season.
“I mean, that’s pretty ridiculous to think,” says Seth Wickersham, a senior writer at ESPN. But Wickersham also says the idea of Rivers returning isn’t as wild as it sounds.
Rivers doesn’t have the speed of younger athletes, but that was never part of his game. But what Rivers does have, Wickersham says, is a very particular set of skills.
“Against, you know, all logic, sanity and reason, the NFL has kind of become an old man’s game for quarterbacks.”
For one thing, veterans like Rivers have proven they can quickly understand game situations. And today’s quarterbacks don’t get hit as much, if they stay in the pocket rather than scramble around. This season, similar circumstances allowed another 40-something quarterback, Joe Flacco, to return to the NFL to help the Cincinnati Bengals after Joe Burrow was injured.
10: Children in Philip and Tiffany Rivers’ family. On Wednesday, Rivers said they’re thrilled, nervous and a bit surprised about the idea of him playing in the NFL again.
“My 6-year-old actually asked me like 4 months ago, like, ‘Dad, why don’t you play anymore?’ ” Rivers said in a news conference. “And I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. The best you’re gonna get is me coaching on the sideline.’ “
8: Pro Bowl appearances for Rivers, who maintained elite stats while spending most of his career with the Chargers, from 2004 until 2019. (The team moved from San Diego to Los Angeles in 2017.)
5: Years of a waiting before a Hall of Fame induction. With his strong résumé, Rivers “was always going to get in on what’s called the first ballot, which is the first year that he’s eligible,” Wickersham says. If Rivers joins the active roster, his Hall of Fame candidacy would reset.
0: Number of playoff appearances by the Colts since Rivers spent the 2020 season with the team following the surprise retirement of Andrew Luck. Indianapolis reached the playoffs with Rivers, but lost to the Buffalo Bills in January 2021.
240: Consecutive regular season starts by Rivers, the second most for any quarterback. It’s a sign of both stamina and smarts, Wickersham says: “You don’t play football for that many games in a row if you’re getting hit all the time.”
14: Current Colts players that Rivers says were on the team when he was last there.
“The teammates that I was able to play with, shoot, 14 of them are still here,” he said on Wednesday. “Training room is the same. PR guys are the same. Equipment room is the same. They wanted me. I try to keep it as simple as that.”
32: Number of NFL starting quarterbacks. And during his career, not many of them could do what Rivers did — and might still do.
“There’s 16,000 starting quarterbacks in high school every year. There’s 858 in college at the highest level,” Wickersham says. “There’s 32 starters in the NFL. There’s 10 good ones and there’s three great ones, give or take, in a year.”
“There are very few guys like Philip Rivers,” he adds. “So if anyone can come off of the street and deliver a couple of wins and help this team make the playoffs, he’s one of the few guys that could do it.”
2: The number of Indianapolis star athletes who have torn their Achilles tendons this year, at key moments. First there was the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton, knocked out of Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Months later, the Colts lost starting quarterback Daniel Jones — who had already been “playing through” a broken fibula.
“It’s just another stinging moment for Indianapolis sports,” says Samantha Horton, of member station WFYI.
For the city’s fans, she says, “I think some of them are just hopeful that … a dream of even seeing the playoffs can remain alive this year.”
For the Colts, that dream might depend on what Rivers can still do.
“It’s been heartbreaking for this to happen to Indy fans especially after the Pacers’ run,” Colts fan Grace Branson says. “The Colts were off to a great and hopeful start. I’m glad that Rivers is familiar with this offense so it gives me some hope and confidence for the rest of the season.”
WFYI’s Samantha Horton contributed to this story.
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