Planned water wells for Hyundai Motor Company’s electric vehicle production near Savannah pose no threat to the underground water source that Bulloch County homes and farms have relied on for decades, state environmental officials told a largely skeptical audience in a rural high school auditorium Tuesday.
Up to 6.6 million gallons per day, extracted from the Floridan Aquifer via four Bulloch wells, would be sent to Bryan County to supply the Hyundai site and related development it is expected to attract to the area. permits proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection of Georgia.
EPD officials traveled to Southeast Bulloch High School to explain the expected impacts of the extractions and to answer questions from residents concerned about the future availability and quality of the water their own wells draw from the aquifer, a vast 100,000-square-mile underground reservoir that spans Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina.
The representatives reiterated their predictions, based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey, that the aquifer depth would decrease by up to 19 feet (5.8 meters) near the wells and by less than 10 feet (3 meters) outside a five-mile (8-kilometer) radius of the extraction area if the wells were operated at their permitted capacity.
Typically, water pumps are placed 30 to 60 feet deep within the aquifer itself, beneath a thick, solid “confining zone,” explains assistant state geologist Christine Voudy.
“When we ran our simulation, the maximum capacity drop at those locations was 19 feet,” Voudy explained. “So it’s less than the 30-foot (threshold).”
This would allow the pumps to remain submerged and pump water.
Pete Peterson, a Guyton driller who has been in the industry for 43 years, said he consulted with the owners of other drillers — several of whom had a front-row seat Tuesday — and was encouraged by the state’s projections.
“If the (EPD) model is correct, we expect minimal impact on a properly installed deep well,” he told the audience. “Folks, your deep wells are not going to run dry.”
Deep wells are wells that tap into the Floridan, while shallow wells access a ‘surface’ aquifer.
Peterson noted that shallow wells are not affected by groundwater extraction.
“That water will always be available,” he added.
Call for vote: Petition Wants to Stop Water Wells for Hyundai’s GA Site
Soften well
A fund to help homeowners whose private wells have been affected by increased pumping from the Floridan grew 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 donating $250,000 to the pool, according to the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, which is also contributing a matching amount. Development authorities in Bryan and Bulloch County are also contributing a quarter of a million dollars each.
The establishment of the fund is one of the conditions that the EPD has included in the draft permits.
Peterson estimated that lowering a water pump 40 feet would cost an individual homeowner between $900 and $1,200.
“Some of these older wells — 50, 60, 70 years old — you might have to put a new one in,” he added. “You’re looking at $12,000, $15,000 in this area for that.”
No salt water ingress
Water quality in the aquifer will not be affected by the new wells, EPD officials insisted. That includes any risk of saltwater infiltration.
“But if saltwater is intruding into the aquifer in Bryan County, how do you know it won’t happen in Bulloch County?” one audience member asked.
That’s a question often asked because the location of the wells in Bulloch County is related to water withdrawal limits imposed on Bryan County as part of an effort to prevent saltwater from entering the Hilton Head Island aquifer.
Although Bryan is in a so-called red zone where pumping is prohibited, there is no danger of the aquifer there being exposed to saltwater. The same applies to Bulloch, according to EPD’s Voudy.
EPD is accepting written comments on the proposed well permits through August 20 at EPDComments@dnr.ga.gov.
John Deem writes about climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213 or jdeem@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared in the Savannah Morning News: Pumps for Hyundai’s Georgia site wouldn’t threaten private wells
