A coastal Georgia conservation group on Monday informed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that it will take legal action to stop work on Hyundai Motor Company’s soon-to-open electric-vehicle manufacturing facility near Savannah.
In a letter of intent filed Monday, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper (ORK) informed USACE that it is challenging the October 2022 approval of a permit that helped clear the way for the $7.6 million project in Bryan County.
The organization accuses USACE of “not completing required steps and overlooking water supply concerns during the permitting process” for the 2,500-acre site.
The federal Clean Water Act requires USACE to collect pertinent information and analyze permit requests that impact or disturb “waters of the U.S.,” including wetlands.
“Despite major updates and changes to ... permit requests between 2019 and 2022, USACE did not reconsider these additional substantial impacts,” ORK said Monday.
Chief among those alterations was the addition of nearly 600 acres to the project. The 2019 site analysis on which the permit application was based should have been revisited to address potential implications of an expanded operation, ORK argued.
“The required procedural planning steps for this project were not properly completed and, therefore, any activities related to this project should be immediately halted until these crucial steps are properly completed,” ORK says in its letter addressed to Lt. Col. Sott A. Spellmon, commanding general and chief of engineers; Col. Ronald J. Sturgeon, USAC Savannah District commander and engineer;and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
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6.6 million gallons per day
The organization also 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 Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
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 months before the permit was approved that the Hyundai plant and related development would require up to 6.6 million gallons of water per day and the drilling of four new wells.
That information was included in a confidential “letter of intent” dated April 25, 2022, to Robert Boehringer, managing partner at consulting firm KPMG International. That letter, which laid out plans for the Hyundai project, also was signed by Tollison (who also is president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority) and Wilson.
However, the water needs were not mentioned in the permit application, also signed by Tollison and Wilson and submitted 12 days after the letter, on June 7, 2022.
USACE approved the permit, including the findings that no additional water or wells would be needed, nearly four months later, on Oct. 4, 2022.
When questioned in March as part of a Savannah Morning News investigation of the process, a USACE Savannah District spokeswoman said the corps had no reason to think otherwise.
“We rely on information made available to us during the permitting process,” Cheri Pritchard said in an email response.“Information regarding water supply impacts, such as the informationprovided in the letter (of intent) you shared, is most helpful during the permit review process.This information was not previously provided to us during that process.”
That shouldn’t matter, ORK said Monday.
“There was an assumption that existing water utilities could meet the demand, but it’s the job of USACE to challenge that assumption and require more of the applicant,”said Ben Kirsch, ORK’s legal director.
When asked about the process in March, Tollison said the application satisfied all requirements.
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Aquifer to be impacted
The new wells will draw water from the Floridan Aquifer in Bulloch County and pump it to the Hyundai site, which the company expects to begin operating later this year.
Overwhelming local demand on the aquifer ― part of a 100,000-square-mile underground water source covering all of Florida and portions of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi ― led to the intrusion of saltwater near Savannah and prompted the state environmental officials to cap withdrawals in 2008.
The limits covered Chatham, Bryan, Liberty and a portion of Effingham counties.
To meet the Hyundai-related demand, the depth of the aquifer could drop by as much as 19 feet near the wells, and private wells could decline by up to 15 feet, according to projections from Georgia EDP.
The potential impact within a 5-mile radius of the Hyundai facility prompted EPD to include the protection of property owners among conditions tied to state permits for the new wells. Under the provisions, Bryan and Bulloch counties will be required to establish a fund to help well owners who experience “unreasonable impacts” related to the increased extraction.
The available pool is expected to start at $500,000, Tollison said.
As the largest economic development investment in Georgia history, the Hyundai project should be subect to strict scrutiny, Ogeechee Riverkeeper and ORK Executive Director Damon Mullis insisted Monday.
“One of ORK’s directives is to be a watchdog for water resources and make sure permitting processes are done correctly,” Mullis said. "When we find out that permit applicants withhold important information in an application and the permitting agency hasn’t done their due diligence, we will call them out and use the law to hold them accountable.”
ORK's letter also names the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which disbursed millions of dollars in infrastructure funding for the projects.
John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213.
