There is a stench in the air-and concentrating on the ground- in the town of Alexandria Indiana, and it is not the odor of raw sewage that emanates through backyards. What started as a local scale infrastructure meltdown has escalated into a messy situation of polluted water, censoring civil debate and a road that could be more costly to build than what the town has spent annually.
Suburban homeowners started feeling the effects first in the spring 2025, when their tap water became discolored, their drains started to smell foul, and in some cases, they even saw sewage squirting up into their backyards. Then came the E. coli scare—independent lab tests suggested the presence of harmful pathogens in what residents relied on as safe, potable Alexandria Indiana water. At least one of the children was taken to the hospital the society became more and more apprehensive
On July 7, visitors sat on the benches of city hall. Officials of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) were there to discuss findings and to listen to the concerns of people. However, before questions could start, it turned out to be a bombshell decision.
The irony could be heard bouncing off the walls: in a town that was overwhelmed by waste, people were not supposed to talk about it.
Parallel to the water story we have the collapsing Washington Street construction- half a mile of road that is now become the icon of fiscal sleight of hand. The project was initially awarded under an INDOT approved 5.25 million dollar contract but later as reported by councilman VanErman it might exceed 10 million dollars.
This comes to almost 20 m per million. Relative to this, it is worth noting that some airports of small sizes cost more to construct than that.
Local researcher James Peters assembled a file of documents that reflected triple-billings on engineering costs, duplicative inspections and planning expenses that were billed to sewer, storm water, and road accounts all at the same time. Even after a delay of 16 months and constant funding, most of the road is not built yet.
VanErman claims that the expenses are within the industry norms and are audited by the state. He has termed the criticism as a circus. Residents, however, do not watch a show and call it mismanagement. Now they demand the forms.
The reason the gag order was not purely procedural but symbolic is because VanErman was the one in Keene who brought attention to this issue due to its proximity. To the citizens who have witnessed their town fight, the refusal to even consider a conversation on health and safety was the greatest call to action since the beginning: this is not a crisis being solved; but rather a crisis being covered up.
The thing that makes this piece so different though, is not just the sewage, or the inflated project costs, or even the E. coli. It is the deep institutional failure: where caring parents are marginalized, where an environmental agency of a state is silenced, and a councilman like Jeremy VanErman can commit a silence as a directive characteristic of governance.
But the residents are fighting back in Alexandria. They are collecting petitions on third-party testing of the water, they want a forensic audit of the project spending, and they want an open hearing on the entire topic only with no restrictions. They do not want miracles. Just to drink clean water, have a working road, and the freedom to talk. And until the town is able to hear the truth come out of the hands of authoritative people, Alexandria will be not spoiled but poisoned with the silence.
