Group not satisfied with feds’ response to threatened lawsuit over Hyundai permits

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include language from a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Ogeechee Riverkeeper.

More than 30 days after threatening legal action to halt the largest economic development project in Georgia’s history, a lawyer on Thursday expressed impatience with federal officials for failing to address “substantial issues” raised by an environmental group.

On June 3, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper organization informed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing that it intended to sue the agency over its approval of an environmental permit for Hyundai Motor Company's $7.6 billion electric vehicle and battery manufacturing site in Bryan County.

The letter set a 20-day deadline for the USACE to address ORK’s concerns but, as of Thursday, the organization had received only a “standard format procedural response” that offered no potential resolutions, attorney Don Stack wrote in an email.

That response from Col. Ronald Sturgeon, commander of the USACE Savannah District, acknowledges receipt of ORK’s letter and adds: “If you wish to discuss concerns beyond what were stated in the (notice of intent), please provide those concerns for our consideration.”

Stack, in his message to USACE attorney Ellen Spicer, noted that the agency had not addressed the issues already raised by ORK.

“I would hope that the Corps has undertaken a meaningful evaluation of the facts, circumstances and allegations underlying our concerns set out in that letter,” Stack said in the message to

Those issues were related to the October 2022 approval of a permit that helped clear the way for the Hyundai project.

The organization accused USACE of “not completing required steps and overlooking water supply concerns during the permitting process” for the 2,500-acre site.

The federal Clean Water Act requires USACE to collect pertinent information and analyze permit requests that impact or disturb “waters of the U.S.,” including wetlands.

“Despite major updates and changes to ... permit requests between 2019 and 2022, USACE did not reconsider these additional substantial impacts,” ORK said Monday.

Chief among those alterations was the addition of nearly 600 acres to the project. The 2019 site analysis on which the permit application was based should have been revisited to address potential implications of an expanded operation, ORK argued.

Feds: Endangered fish 'vulnerable to disturbance' from wells for Hyundai's Georgia site

Concerns ‘heightened’ by state action

In his email Thursday, Stack, the attorney, suggested “the critical nature of addressing (ORK’s) concerns is heightened by the recent action of your sister agency (the Georgia Environmental Protection Division).”

Earlier this month, EDP released draft permits for four proposed Bulloch County wells that would draw 6.6 million gallons of water from the Floridan Aquifer to supply the Hyundai site in Bryan County.

ORK's letter of intent also challenged USACE’s findings that “it would be reasonable to assume that the Bryan County (water) supply is adequate” to support the plant and related growth and “would not require water withdrawals or a permit” from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division .

The applicants ― Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority Secretary Trip Tollison and Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development ― knew months before the permit was approved that the Hyundai plant and related development would require up to 6.6 million gallons of water per day and the drilling of four new wells.

That information was included in a confidential “letter of intent” dated April 25, 2022, to Robert Boehringer, managing partner at consulting firm KPMG International . That letter, which laid out plans for the Hyundai project, also was signed by Tollison (who also is president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority) and Wilson.

However, the water needs were not mentioned in the permit application, also signed by Tollison and Wilson and submitted 12 days after the letter, on June 7, 2022.

USACE approved the permit, including the findings that no additional water or wells would be needed, nearly four months later, on Oct. 4, 2022.

When questioned in March as part of a Savannah Morning News investigation of the process, a USACE Savannah District spokeswoman said the corps had no reason to think otherwise.

“We rely on information made available to us during the permitting process,” Cheri Pritchard said in an email response. “Information regarding water supply impacts, such as the information provided in the letter (of intent) you shared, is most helpful during the permit review process. This information was not previously provided to us during that process.”

That shouldn’t matter, ORK said in its letter.

“There was an assumption that existing water utilities could meet the demand, but it’s the job of USACE to challenge that assumption and require more of the applicant,” added Ben Kirsch, ORK’s legal director.

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

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Group not satisfied with feds’ response to threatened lawsuit over Hyundai permits