SAVANNAH ― Water, water everywhere but not enough drops to drink.
A drinking water shortage looms over the fast-growing Savannah metro area, even with the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Savannah River to the north and the 100,000-square-mile Floridan aquifer beneath the ground.
State permitting rules restrict access to the aquifer while insufficient infrastructure limits how much comes from the river and the ocean, prompting Savannah Mayor Van Johnson to label the water supply “the bane of our existence.”
While Johnson and other officials have long sweated the region’s dearth of water, the broader public has largely been ignorant of the issue, until recently, when a plan to tap into the Floridan aquifer at well sites outside the region and pipe up to 4 million gallons a day to the newly opened Hyundai Metaplant stoked controversy.
A condition of those well permits requires development of a replacement water source within the next 25 years to supply the electric vehicle plant, which is 25 miles west of Savannah’s riverfront. Local authorities have until April 7, 2025 to submit a plan for state review and approval.
Credit: Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America
Credit: Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America
At the same time, the city of Savannah, the region’s largest water supplier, is addressing its own needs. The city plans to upgrade its 77-year-old treatment facility next year and is seeking a permit to increase its daily intake from 55 million gallons a day to 70 million gallons. Long-range plans unveiled in September propose expanding capacity to 100 million gallons a day at a cost of $500 million.
The additional supply will come from the Savannah River, as the state gradually weans the city off the aquifer by imposing stricter and stricter withdrawal limits. In 2025, Savannah’s allotment shrinks from 20 million gallons a day to 18 million, and another reduction is possible in 2027.
Savannah is considered best positioned to supply water to replace the Hyundai wells. But city officials insist their improvement plan is not related to the automaker’s thirst and the additional capacity is needed to accommodate an ongoing population and industrial development boom in Savannah and Chatham County.
The number of metro residents has more than doubled since 2000, the economy thriving on activity at the Georgia Ports Authority, which operates the nation’s third-busiest marine terminal, in addition to tourism, manufacturing and health care.
Currently, Savannah’s water pipes don’t stretch into Bryan County, home to the Hyundai factory. The nearest connection is several miles away from the plant.
The mounting stressors on the water supply have pushed the region to a watershed moment.
“The decisions we make in the next four years are really going to shape the community for the next 50 to 100 years in the ways the decisions in the last 20 years never could,” City Manager Jay Melder told council members at a recent workshop.
Here’s what to know about Savannah’s water woes — and how the problems can be addressed.
Why surface water instead of groundwater?
The city of Savannah’s vision for increasing water capacity leverages a water intake point on a tributary of the Savannah River, a 100-million-gallon reservoir built as part of the $973 million river deepening project completed in 2022 and the expansion of the water treatment facility.
Savannah’s reliance on surface water is driven by withdrawal restrictions from the Floridan aquifer, the massive, underground reservoir beneath South Georgia, Florida and parts of surrounding states. Regional water providers have faced groundwater limits since 2013, following an investigation that determined pumping in the Savannah area had lowered the aquifer’s water table and led to an increase in saltwater intrusion.
Water levels in the aquifer have increased by 40 feet from the low but the restrictions remain, as the saltwater that seeped into the underground reservoir is not easily flushed out, according to the Environmental Protection Division. The limits forced providers to seek other sources.
Credit: Hallaton Environmental Linings
Credit: Hallaton Environmental Linings
What about seawater? Other aquifers?
Local economic development officials began studying water solutions in 2013, the year they first imagined a large swath of wooded land next to I-16 in Bryan County as a large-scale manufacturing site.
Surface water was the simplest answer. The Ogeechee River passes near what is now the Hyundai factory but lacks the flow of the Savannah River, which is fed by rivers in the Appalachian Mountains. But the Savannah River lies 20 miles from the factory site and tapping it directly — not via the city of Savannah water system — would involve significant infrastructure investment.
Alternatives are likewise expensive and not nearly as reliable. The city of Tampa spent $158 million to build a desalination plant designed to pull 25 million gallons of seawater a day from the Gulf of Mexico. But that facility has been closed since late 2023 due to equipment corroded by the salty water.
Another option is drilling into a cretaceous aquifer, located more than 3,800 feet below the Earth’s surface. Hilton Head Island has one such well along with a facility to treat and cool the water, which is a scalding 118 degrees when it emerges from the ground.
But other attempts to build cretaceous wells have proved problematic. Tybee Island, 20 minutes east of downtown Savannah, tried to drill into the aquifer a decade ago but abandoned the project after a test well collapsed well short of the required depth.
The Savannah River will ultimately be used to slake the thirst of Hyundai and surrounding development, said Trip Tollison, who heads the Savannah Joint Development Authority, a coalition of four county economic development authorities.
“Our focus has been on groundwater from the Savannah River and moving it west,” Tollison said. “It’s easy to put up a map and show how we can get it from here to there. The hard part is the easements, costs and the rest.”
What’s next?
Tollison and other economic development leaders intend to unveil the details of their water plan well ahead of the April deadline. The Hyundai plant began producing EVs in October and an adjacent battery factory is to open in mid-2025.
The automaker has targeted 2031 for the full build out of its 8,500-employee operation.
Meanwhile, the state EPD plans to formulate a new Coastal Georgia Permitting Strategy beginning in early 2025. The agency has committed to an open public process in developing recommendations with implementation by Dec. 31, 2027.
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