Official: Water permits for wells to supply Hyundai plant to be approved 'in a few days'

State environmental officials are expected to announce approval of permits “in the next few days” for new wells that will provide up to 6.6 million gallons of water daily for Hyundai Motor Company’s 2,450-acre electric-vehicle-manufacturing complex near Savannah, a local official said Wednesday.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s impending move was behind a pair of hastily called meetings Tuesday to approve an agreement related to the project, Bulloch County Manager Tom Couch told the Savannah Morning News.

Water from the four Bulloch County wells will be sent to Bryan County to supply Hyundai’s $7.6 billion facility and accompanying development.

“Approving the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) before the EPD finalizes its permit is important to ensure that all government entities are in agreement regarding water usage, distribution, and management, in order to avoid future conflicts,” Couch wrote in an email. “The IGA will also help ensure compliance with regulations and responsible use of water resources as per the EPD’s standards.”

He added that “details of the agreement were made public several months ago, and negotiations have significantly favored Bulloch County since then.”

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‘Telling everyone how it’s going to be’

That mattered little to residents and other interested parties who attended the special meeting of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners Tuesday evening.

As they entered the county’s North Main Street Annex in downtown Statesboro, the thermometer readings outside hovered around 100 degrees.

Inside the facility’s air-conditioned Community Room, board Chairman Roy Thompson was still feeling the heat.

Members of the audience had made it clear that one day was not enough time to plow through a proposed 28-page agreement between the two counties, along with a plan to help property owners whose wells are compromised by the additional withdrawals from the Floridan Aquifer.

“This is what I do, and I spent all day with these two documents, and I didn’t nearly get through them,” Ben Kirsch, a lawyer who serves as legal director at the Ogeechee Riverkeeper organization, told commissioners. “You don’t give us an opportunity to have a say in this, and that kind of continues the trend around this whole project of decisions being held down (and) not really including us in the thought process and the planning process, and kind of telling everyone how it’s going to be.”

The county had given little more than 25 hours for public notice of commissioners’ intent to approve the controversial plans that had been years in the making.

That met Georgia’s standard of announcing public meetings at least 24 hours in advance, but what’s legal isn’t necessarily always right, Kirsch and other audience members argued.

‘You may think this is childish’

After hearing from Kirsch and one other speaker who also bemoaned the short lead time, Thompson eventually asked if the audience was ready to move on with the meeting.

“I’m not,” a woman in the front row replied.

“What about the rest of you?” Thompson continued, only to be met by murmurs. “Anyone want to speak up? Say yes, no?”

A woman in the rear of the room eventually answered for the group.

“You just made it clear that you’re still chairman of the board ...,” she said, referring to Thompson’s earlier admonishment of audience members who’d interrupted him.

“Yes, I am, but I’m trying to give an opportunity for citizens to speak, also,” he explained as he cut the woman off. “You want me to make this decision?”

“Yes,” she answered.

Thompson asked for, and got, a motion from his colleagues to cut the meeting short.

That ended up in a 3-3 deadlock, leaving the chairman visibly flummoxed.

“You may think this is childish,” he told the audience. “But if you feel you’ve been slighted, I certainly want to set another meeting at another date and another time. Now, I’m in a dilemma.”

Thompson asked for another show of hands. The result was the same, prompting a single pound of his gavel as he broke the tie.

“The meeting is closed,” he announced. “We will notify you when we have another meeting.”

That announcement came less than 24 hours later. Commissioners will revisit the water agreement and well mitigation plan during another special meeting Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the North Main Annex Community Room, 115 N. Main St. in Statesboro.

Bryan County commissioners, meanwhile, approved the water agreement with Bulloch County Tuesday but delayed a decision on the assistance program.

A Georgia Environmental Protection Division spokeswoman did not reply to a request for comment on the impending well permits.

John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia to approve Hyundai megasite water permits, official says