Appeal among 'potential avenues' in challenging Georgia permits for Hyundai wells

The time window is quickly closing for any formal challenges to recently issued state environmental permits for four Bulloch County wells expected to supply up to 6.6 million gallons of water for Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America and related development.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division approved the permits Oct. 7. Opponents have 30 days to file an administrative appeal. That makes Wednesday, Nov. 6, the deadline.

The Ogeechee Riverkeeper organization (ORK), which has threatened legal action over a separate federal environmental permit for the 2,500-acre electric vehicle and battery manufacturing site along Interstate 16 in Bryan County, said Thursday it is “working on a number of potential avenues” related to the state’s approval of the wells.

“ORK is actively evaluating the details of the permits and EPD’s comment responses, and considering the next steps,” spokeswoman Meaghan Gerard said in an email. “EPD and the State of Georgia cannot continue to allow industry to monopolize our limited, pristine groundwater.”

Don Stark, an attorney representing the organization, added that "the ORK Board has authorized an exploration of all legal avenues, fully recognizing the time restrictions of any possible (state) permit appeal.”

Georgia EPD issued the permits a week after production commenced at the 16-million-square-foot facility, which Hyundai says will eventually use up to 4 million gallons of the water piped across the county line from the wells when manufacturing hits its peak of 300,000 vehicles per year.

Bryan and Bulloch were each granted two permits to take water from the Floridan Aquifer, an extensive reservoir covering 100,000 square miles beneath all of Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina.

The wells are in Bulloch because Bryan is in an area where pumping is restricted by the state to limit saltwater entering the aquifer near Hilton Head Island.

EPD says there is no risk of saltwater intrusion into the aquifer in Bulloch County.

In the dark: Feds should have known – and been told – of water demands for Hyundai site, experts say

Potential well restrictions

A so-called administrative appeal of the state permits is a precursor to potential legal challenges, said 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.

“The point of all of that is to see, can the opponents and can the agency actually come to some agreement so there doesn't need to be litigation?” Rowberry explained. “So, a lot of it is set up as more of a negotiation-style exercise to see if there can be some common ground.”

The process is typically faster, more flexible and less costly than going to court, he added.

EPD could decline to make any changes to the permits, leading to a potential court challenge. To avoid litigation, EPD could potentially agree to reduce how much water can be legally withdrawn and the number of wells, or add to existing conditions tied to the permits, Rowberry said.

Rowberry and other experts also say that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could set its own limits on extractions from the wells as it revisits an environmental permit it issued for the $7.6 billion Hyundai project itself.

USACE said in August it was launching a “reevaluation” of a key permit in response to ORK’s threatened legal challenge.

The Corps noted that state and local development officials omitted the site’s projected water use in their application for a federal permit required by the U.S. Clean Water Act.

USACE revealed that it later learned about the Hyundai complex’s water demands from EPD’s draft permits for the four wells.

ORK informed USACE in June that it intended to challenge the October 2022 approval of a permit that helped clear the way for the project.

The organization accused USACE of “not completing required steps and overlooking water supply concerns during the permitting process” for the site.

The Clean Water Act requires USACE to collect pertinent information and analyze permit requests that impact or disturb “waters of the U.S.,” including wetlands.

The organization challenged USACE’s findings that “it would be reasonable to assume that the Bryan County (water) supply is adequate” to support the plant and related growth and “would not require water withdrawals or a permit” from the EPD.

The applicants―Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority Secretary Trip Tollison and Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development―knew how much water would be needed months before the permit was approved.

The Joint Development Authority said it has since supplied USACE with details of projected withdrawals from the wells and the projected impact on the aquifer.

'Mucked something up'

As a condition for issuing state permits for the wells, Georgia EPD is requiring Bryan and Bulloch counties to create a fund that would “address any potential significant impacts” to private wells within a 5-mile radius of the new withdrawal sites, which are near the Interstate 16-Georgia Highway 119 interchange.

The agency 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.    

EPD says it identified 13 drinking-water wells drawing from the aquifer within the mitigation zone, along with three agricultural wells. The aquifer level is projected to drop between 8 and 13 feet within that area.

Rowberry, from Georgia State, noted that funds like the one mandated by EPD typically are well-intentioned, but often poorly administered.

“After we've mucked something up, we usually don't know how to mitigate it very well,” he said.

Transitioning to surface water

The potential for stricter limits on withdrawals from the wells is significant because there is no short-term alternative supply available.

In its permits for the wells, EPD included a provision requiring Bryan and Bulloch counties to develop plans for replacing the aquifer withdrawals with water from other sources within 25 years.

Those plans would be due within six months of EPD’s approval of the permits.

ORK continues to criticize EPD for not requiring a prompter transition, especially since the city of Savannah continues to decrease its reliance on the aquifer in exchange for more withdrawals from the Savannah River.

“Area residents are forced to increase their reliance on treated surface water for drinking, and agricultural producers face water supply uncertainties and increased production costs,” said Gerard, the ORK spokeswoman. “The 25 years EPD is giving to find an alternative water supply is inadequate and insufficient.”

State and local economic development officials who negotiated Hyundai’s agreement to bring its operations to Bryan County say they’re looking to Savannah's Industrial and Domestic Water Treatment Plant plant as a future alternative source for water.

A consultant told the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) Board of Directors last month that the price tag for such a connection would likely be in the $1 billion range.

Tollison, who is president and CEO of SEDA along with his duties at the joint development authority, has said it will take up to a quarter-century to secure funding, acquire necessary rights-of-way, and design and install such a system.

John Deem covered climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Challenge to wells for Hyundai's Georgia EV plant must come soon