Episode 98: Waterfowl and Water, Foul w/ Michael Potter

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Episode 98: Waterfowl and Water, Foul w/ Michael Potter

The environmental geologist and state house candidate talks gerrymandering, the importance of a comprehensive state water policy, and whether data centers can be part of sustainable development.

Scott Aaron Rogers

Oct 10, 2025

Transcript

Episode 98: Waterfowl and Water, Foul

Guest: Michael Potter - Environmental geologist and State House candidate (D-HD47)

https://hoosleft.us

https://friendsofmichaelpotter.com/

Welcome to the HoosLeft Podcast, a show about Indiana politics, history, and culture from an unapologetically leftist perspective. My name is Scott Aaron Rogers, I’m recording from Bloomington, a city that - before the construction of Lake Monroe in the 1960’s - struggled with chronic lack of clean, accessible drinking water. From a typhoid epidemic in the 1880’s, frequent droughts in the following decades, multiple unsuccessful reservoirs, and growth that outpaced several successful ones, it wasn’t until the US Army Corp of Engineers built Monroe Dam - creating the largest lake in the state - that this community could reliably turn on the tap without second thought.

Few remaining Bloomingtonians - and few Hoosiers in general - remember a time when a safe, reliable source of water was not something to be take for granted. But we must not forget those lessons, because Indiana may be headed for a major water crisis in our lifetimes.

Already, Indiana has the most polluted rivers and streams of any state. In their breakdown of the latest statewide water monitoring and assessment report, Hoosier Environmental Council notes that of the 33,000+ miles surveyed, almost 25,000 miles - 73% - of rivers and streams are listed as impaired for recreation and swimming. None of Indiana’s 67 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline support full body contact recreational use or human health and wildlife use. Pathogens continue to be the top cause of stream impairments in Indiana, with impacts to the potential recreational use of more than 24,000 miles of streams - over 11,000 miles impaired by agricultural runoff, the top source of impairment. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has assessed over 36,000 miles of stream and found 32 percent of those to not fully support use by aquatic life, and the agency found a type of PFAS chemical in 100 percent of fish samples.

Furthermore, industrial demand for water is increasing exponentially, with Indiana’s economic development leaders looking to exploit underground aquifers for a massive corporate megasite in Boone County while water-guzzling data centers proliferate across the state.

And on top of all that, the Hoosier State currently has NO statewide water plan, with Governor Mike Braun only mandating the creation of such a framework this spring.

So, with all of this looming over us - and Indiana Republicans primarily occupied with culture war grievance and low-key election theft - it is more important than ever to send scientifically-knowledgable, qualified individuals with the capacity for systemic thinking to our state legislature. My guest today is one such person.

Michael Potter is a geologist who specializes in identifying, characterizing, and remediating chemical contamination of soil, groundwater, lakes, and rivers. Additionally, he responds to environmental emergencies such as train derailments and chemical spills. Having worked for multiple companies in the industry over a 25-year career, Potter has worked on hundreds of properties around Indiana (and around the country) completing soil logging, water well installation and sampling, lake and river sampling, remediation system design and installation, worker and community air monitoring, incident characterization and closure reports, human health and environmental risk assessment as a field operations leader, environmental unit leader, and Safety Officer. He is a Democratic candidate for the Indiana State House of Representatives in the 47th District, which includes parts of Johnson and Shelby Counties in the central part of the state.

In the following conversation, we’ll discuss his unusually-shaped, gerrymandered district, the importance comprehensive water policy and sustainable development - and whether the data centers that seem to keep popping up have any place in that ecosystem.

Real quick before we get to the interview, please consider supporting HoosLeft with a paid subscription. This is an independent media project; I don’t paywall content; I don’t sell out to advertisers; I don’t have billionaire benefactors. Only individuals like you keep this thing going. I refuse to gatekeep valuable information in the middle of a political crisis, even to my financial detriment. So please, if you find value in this work, go to HoosLeft.us and subscribe at the paid level - it’s only $5 a month, or $50 a year, to help me write more, research more, and organize more. Not ready for long-term commitment? You can make a one-time contribution on Cash App or Venmo. Links are in the show notes. Look, I’m pushing 50. My sore old body could better serve this state constructing a better future for Indiana than actual construction, but I need your financial support to do so.

If that doesn’t work for your budget at this time, you can still help out by liking and sharing on social media, commenting, leaving reviews, providing feedback, and forwarding articles to your people. We are building a community of Hoosiers dedicated to making this state, and its government, work for all of us, not just the elite few. Please join us.

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Now, here is my conversation with Michael Potter.

Things We Talked About:

QUACK! Indiana HD47 looks like a duck: https://ballotpedia.org/Indiana_House_of_Representatives_District_47

How gerrymandering divides communities of interest: https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-partisan-redistricting-divides-and-harms-communities/

Indiana Rural Summit: https://indianaruralsummit.org/

Indiana House Districts: https://www.indianachamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/INHouseDistricts_2023-scaled.jpg

IU Geology program #35 nationally: https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/indiana-university-bloomington/academic-life/academic-majors/physical-sciences/geological-and-earth-sciences/

Americans suffer from scientific illiteracy: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/09/09/how-americas-big-science-literacy-mistake-is-coming-back-to-haunt-us/

Indiana’s polluted rivers and streams: https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/report-indiana-has-the-most-polluted-rivers-streams-of-any-state

LEAP Project threatens Hoosier water: https://www.citact.org/leap

Potter w/ The Recovered Republican 10/3/25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zzMqtI0ctU

Indiana watersheds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watersheds_of_Indiana

Booking time on supercomputers - circa 2007: https://phys.org/news/2007-09-supercomputer-reservation.html

Braun calls for statewide water inventory: https://dailyjournal.net/2025/04/22/braun-signs-orders-calling-for-state-water-management-plan-rare-earth-recovery-council/

The water cycle: https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/freshwater/water-cycle

Obama-era “Waters of the United States” rules: https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2015/06/obama-administration-issues-final-rule-on-waters-o

The danger of underground storage tanks: https://www.epa.gov/ust/frequent-questions-about-underground-storage-tanks

East Palestine train derailment: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892036225000996

Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill: https://ocean.si.edu/conservation/pollution/gulf-oil-spill

Septic system effects on groundwater: https://gw-project.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/septic-system-impacts-on-groundwater-quality.pdf

Algal blooms from fertilizer: https://watercalculator.org/news/articles/toxic-algae-agriculture-connection/

Paris Climate Agreement - legally-binding but unenforceable: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/11/02/paris-climate-deal-legally-binding-not/

Indiana’s data center boom: https://www.citact.org/ai-data-centers

Some examples of ‘sustainable’ data centers: https://www.raconteur.net/technology/7-fascinating-sustainable-data-centre-projects

Secrecy around data centers: https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/how-confidentiality-agreements-around-a-proposed-data-center-could-impact-indianapolis-development

LEAP project drew on wells without consideration of residents: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/local/2024/10/31/neighboring-wells-not-considered-in-leap-pipeline-study-peer-review-finds/75964458007/

How data centers drive up utility rates: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-ai-infrastructure-is-driving-a-sharp-rise-in-electricity-bills

How data centers COULD be smart with water: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/11/circular-water-solutions-sustainable-data-centres/

Capturing data center heat? https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/06/sustainable-data-centre-heating/

Indiana water well record database: https://www.in.gov/dnr/water/ground-water-wells/water-well-record-database/

Once again, that was Michael Potter, environmental geologist and candidate for Indiana’s 47th State House District in next year’s midterm election. Find him at friendsofmichaelpotter.com and at the same handle on most social media sites. you can also frequently find Michael as a guest panelist on HoosLeft This Week, which streams live every Sunday morning at 10:30am on Project Next Media network’s YouTube, FaceBook Live, and Twitch streams. Indiana’s most thorough weekend morning news and politics talk show, it’s a lot of fun - if you can call following the news in this timeline fun. I bring together a diverse group of panelists from the democratic socialist left to never-Trump conservatives and we look at the week’s headlines from around Indiana and beyond. We’ll also take time to examine one big thing, a different deep dive every week. I hope to see you there in the comments, but if you can’t make it live, the program will be available as a podcast Sunday afternoon.

Thanks again to Michael for taking the time to dive deep into these topics with me, and thank you for listening. If you can, help him out with a contribution - a link to his ActBlue page is in the show notes. And if you’re feeling extra generous, also consider contributing to this project with a paid subscription at HoosLeft.US, where you’ll find my entire archive. I rely solely on the generosity of kind patrons like you to make this information available for free to everybody. In addition to the website, you can find me on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads at HoosLeft.US and on Facebook, X, TikTok, Mastodon, and YouTube at HoosLeft. Direct message me at any of those sites with feedback, tips, ideas, and concern or email me at scott@hoosleft.us. While you’ve got the old email machine out, please forward the show to a friend and have them pass it on, too. Let’s keep building this project - and a truly democratic state - one conversation at a time. Until the next one, this has been the HoosLeft podcast. I’m Scott Aaron Rogers. Love each other, Indiana.