INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), charged with updating the state’s Drainage Handbook, hopes a draft is available in February, according to an official with the agency. ISDA anticipates the document will be ready for a public presentation next summer.

The update is required by Senate Enrolled Act 140, signed into law by then-Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb in March 2024. The state’s Drainage Handbook was first published in 1996 and updated in 1999.

“We want to make sure this is a valuable tool for everybody and that really hits the points that are needed because again, it’s been a quarter of a century since we’ve had an update,” explained David Bausman, ISDA general counsel. The goal is to make the handbook “to be more reflective of the practices that all of you utilize probably every day.”

Bausman spoke Aug. 26 during the Indiana Farm Bureau’s Drainage School.

An advisory board created under SEA 140 has met twice – in December 2024 and July 2025 – and will meet again in mid-November and in mid-March 2026.

During the advisory board’s December meeting, David Eichelberger, Burke’s vice president of government services, said the current handbook is made up of six sections. Included in the first section is information regarding the purpose of the handbook, which serves as an administrative and technical guide for drainage activities within Indiana’s streams and ditches. It’s meant to ease the process of obtaining permits, he said.

Other sections include descriptions of the permitting processes and of various codes, a selection guide for different practices and details of different best management practices (BMPs).

ISDA has contracted with Christopher B. Burke Engineering LLC to update the handbook. They’ve also reviewed the current handbook and conducted a survey about how users utilize the current handbook, Bausman said.

Those responding to the survey included farmers, state and federal agencies, county surveyors, builders and river basin commissions.

Two-thirds of the respondents said they currently use or have used the handbook. Those respondents said the sections they most frequently reference are BMPs, required permitting and the selection guide, he noted.

The third of respondents who said they didn’t use or had discontinued using the handbook said it wasn’t up to date, and was too cumbersome and time consuming to use, Bausman added.

“We’re getting a big pulse of what do we want to keep doing well with the updated handbook and then how can we change it so that (for) the one third that aren’t using it, it can be more beneficial.,” he said.

The survey’s respondents said the most useful organizational features in the handbook include use of common activities, and links to resources, detailed construction and standards, personal contact information and handbook chapters.

Bausman said the respondents would like to see several parts of the practices section of the current handbook kept or added: descriptions with pictures, basic information, design and construction guidelines, practice purpose and maintenance.

‘This past (legislative) session, ISDA was also tasked with creating the Indiana Agricultural Portal and we are currently in the process of building that, and a lot of very similar issues were reflective in the survey that we’ve done,” he said. “We are going to have conversations with Burke and with the advisory board of opportunities of linking in the ag portal with a lot of these types of features that are also being built to update the Drainage Handbook, also making sure that we’re connecting into the Indiana Waterways Portal.

“So I think there’s a really good opportunity of being able to have that up and being able to utilize a lot of this information that we’re seeing updated coming out of this handbook there as well.”

The ag portal is intended to be a “one stop shop” for Hoosier farmers, agribusinesses and consumers, according to ISDA. It is expected to launch next year.