The wells planned to supply Hyundai Motor Company’s electric vehicle manufacturing plant near Savannah will not threaten an underground water source that Bulloch County homes and farms have relied on for decades, state environmental officials told a mostly skeptical audience in the auditorium of a rural high school Tuesday.
Up to 6.6 million gallons per day withdrawn from the Floridan Aquifer through four Bulloch wells would be sent to Bryan County to supply the Hyundai site and related development expected to move into the area. Approvals proposed by the Georgia Department of Environmental Protection.
EPD representatives traveled to Southeast Bulloch High School to explain the expected impacts of the withdrawals and answer questions from residents concerned about the future availability and quality of water their own wells draw from the aquifer, a vast underground reservoir that stretches 100,000 square miles beneath all of Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina.
Officials reiterated projections based on U.S. Geological Survey data that if the wells were operated at design capacity, the aquifer depth would decrease by as much as 19 feet near the wells and less than 10 feet outside a 5-mile radius of the extraction area.
Typically, well pumps are installed 30 to 60 feet deep in the aquifer itself, beneath a thick, solid “containment zone,” explains Deputy State Geologist Christine Voudy.
“When we ran our simulation, the maximum capacity loss at these locations was 19 feet,” Voudy explained. “So that’s less than the 30-foot threshold.”
This meant that the pumps remained underwater and could suck in water.
Pete Peterson, a Guyton well driller who has been in the industry for 43 years, said he has consulted with owners of other well drilling companies – some of whom were in the front row Tuesday – and is encouraged by the state’s projections.
“If the (EPD) model is correct, we expect minimal impacts to a properly installed deep well,” he told the audience. “Folks, your deep wells are not going to dry up.”
Deep wells tap into the Floridan aquifer, while shallow wells access a “shallow” aquifer.
Shallow wells are not affected by groundwater extraction, Peterson noted.
“This water will always be available,” he added.
Call for vote: Petition aims to stop drilling holes for Hyundai’s GA site
Well reduction
A fund to assist property owners whose private wells are affected by increased extraction from Floridan water was increased to $1 million just hours before Tuesday’s meeting.
Hyundai, which was lured to the state in part by more than $2 billion in incentives, is contributing $250,000 to the pool, said the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, which is also contributing a matching amount. Development authorities in Bryan and Bulloch counties are also contributing a quarter-million dollars each.
The establishment of the fund is one of the conditions that the EPD has included in its draft approvals.
Peterson estimated that lowering a well pump 40 feet would cost a single property owner between $900 and $1,200.
“Some of these older wells – 50, 60, 70 years old – you may have to build a new well,” he added. “That would cost $12,000 to $15,000 in this area.”
No penetration of salt water
EPD officials stressed that the water quality in the aquifer will not be affected by the new wells. This also includes the risk of salt water intrusion.
“But if there is saltwater intrusion (into the aquifer) in Bryan County, how do you know it won’t happen in Bulloch County?” asked one viewer.
This question is often asked because the location of the wells in Bulloch County is related to water withdrawal limits in Bryan County, part of an effort to limit saltwater inflow into the aquifer near Hilton Head Island.
Although Bryan is in a so-called red zone where pumping is restricted, there is no danger of the aquifer being exposed to salt water there, and the same is true for Bulloch, said EPD’s Voudy.
EPD is accepting written comments on the proposed drilling permits through August 20 at [email protected].
John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. Reach him at 912-652-0213 or [email protected].
This article originally appeared in the Savannah Morning News: Pumps for Hyundai’s Georgia plant pose no threat to private wells
