The Bloomington Alternative launched the "Indiana a clean and healthy place to live?" reporting project on Feb. 2 with a story about water contamination in the Little Lick Creek in Blackford County. Water samples from the park-side creek in the Summer 2000 indicated untreated combined sewage present at levels that exceeded state water quality standards by at least 25,000 times.

The story was accompanied by a list of questions for Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commission Lori Kaplan regarding Little Lick Creek in particular and water contamination from combined sewers in general. What follows are unedited answers submitted to The Bloomington Alternative by the commissioner's office.