Hyundai says it will need 4 million gallons of water per day at site near Savannah

Hyundai Motor Company expects to use about 60% of permitted water withdrawals from four proposed wells to supply its $7.6 billion electric vehicle and battery manufacturing complex near Savannah, the automaker said this week.?

Bulloch County (where the wells would be drilled) and Bryan County (where construction is nearing completion on Hyundai’s 16-million-square-foot assembly plant) are seeking Georgia Environmental Protection Division approval to pump up to 6.65 million gallons daily?from the Floridan Aquifer.?

“Of the 6.6 million gallons per day, (Hyundai) is estimated to need 4 million gallons per day once we reach full production – 300,000 cars annually,” company spokeswoman Bianca Johnson said in an email. “The remaining 2.65 million gallons annually is for estimated growth and development in North Bryan County.”?

The usage breakdown could be significant as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revisits a crucial environmental permit it approved for development of the 2,500-acre site along Interstate 16. ?

The Corps could respond by further limiting the wells’ capacity, experts have told the Savannah Morning News. ?

In response to a threat of legal action from the Ogeechee Riverkeeper organization, USACE said in August it was launching a “reevaluation” of action that cleared the way for the automaker’s 2,500-acre project in Bryan County because it had not considered the potential impact on the area’s water supply.?

State and local development officials did not mention the planned wells or projected demand in their application for a key permit required by the U.S. Clean Water Act. As a result, the Corps?concluded that the Hyundai project would have “negligible impacts” on the local water supply and that no state permits for additional water withdrawals would be required.? ?

“This determination was made in reliance on the information you provided during our review of your application,” USACE said in an Aug. 23 letter to Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson and Trip Tollison, who leads the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority. “Based on the release of the Georgia EPD draft permits, the Corps has determined that new information has surfaced regarding the effects the project may have on municipal and private water supplies, and that reevaluation of our permit decision regarding ... water supply is warranted.”? ?

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‘Made us look like idiots’?

Ryan Rowberry, a professor and co-director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth at the Georgia State University College of Law, said he was “shocked” by the letter.?

“To me, it was pretty straightforward that the Corps was saying, ‘You guys made us look like idiots and we need your water information in order to properly assess (the permit),’” Rowberry noted. “It was a threatening letter. I mean, it’s threatening with, ‘You could lose your permit.’”?

Tollison, with the Joint Development Authority, replied with a letter to USACE Tuesday.?

“The JDA and the State in partnership with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division will provide the necessary assessments of the Floridan Aquifer plans as soon as possible,” wrote Tollison, who also is president of the Savannah Economic Development Authority.?

EPD estimates the depth of the Floridan will drop by as much as 19 feet near the new wells, and that private wells could decline by up to 15 feet inside the “cone of influence” created by the withdrawals. ?

Among the conditions tied to EPD’s proposed permits for the wells is the creation of a fund to help property owners whose private wells are impacted by the declining depth within a 5-mile radius of the extractions.? ?

With equal contributions from the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor JDA, the Bryan and Bulloch County development authorities and Hyundai, the mitigation pool stands at $1 million.?

Tollison said projected water use wasn’t included in the federal permit application because the state regulates drinking water, but the Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency have both confirmed that impacts on water supply should be among the factors considered.?

“The danger or the downside for Hyundai is that, essentially, it looks to the Corps like (the state and local development officials who submitted the application) were trying to play them,” said Rowberry, the Georgia State law professor.?“Now that (the development officials) have been called out, I think the Corps will be a lot more stringent, which means they could say, ‘Well, you can have 75% or 50% or 25% of your ask, but not 100%.”?

Tollison and other local officials say it would take 25 years to link the Hyundai site to a surface water source. ?

John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213 or [email protected].?