With production just months away at Hyundai Motor Company’s nearly 2,500-acre manufacturing complex near Savannah, a federal agency’s conclusions about projected water demand at the site remain as murky as nearby Black Creek after a daylong deluge.
A Savannah Morning News review of local, state and federal documents related to the $7.6 billion Bryan County project raises two overarching questions related to an October 2022 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that now faces a potential legal challenge:
- How did USACE reach its conclusion that a manufacturing complex expected to use up to 6.6 million gallons of water per day from four new wells drilled into the Floridan Aquifer would have a “negligible effect” on the area’s water supply?
- And why did state and local officials, who were aware of the facility’s water needs, omit projected demand in their application for a permit required by the U.S. Clean Water Act?
In its reply to the first question, the corps touched on circumstances surrounding the second.