Opponents of plans to pull water from hundreds of feet below Bulloch County and send it to Hyundai Motor Company ’s electric vehicle and battery manufacturing site near Savannah said Monday they’re petitioning for a referendum to block drilling the proposed wells.
The announcement came a day before state environmental officials are scheduled to host a public meeting to discuss draft permits for four wells to tap into the Floridan Aquifer for up to 6.6 million gallons of water per day to serve the Hyundai operations and other projected development in northern Bryan County.
Commissioners from both counties approved the wells in July.
Bryan, bound by a joint development agreement to supply water for the $7.6 billion manufacturing complex, is going outside the county because it is subject to state withdrawal limits aimed at limiting saltwater intrusion in the aquifer near Savannah.
The referendum would be in Bulloch, with the goal of nullifying that county’s agreement.
Lawton Sack, one of the petition organizers, said he and other opponents of the wells felt that a referendum was the only way to stop the wells after pleading with county commissioners for months.
“We went to meeting after meeting after meeting and asked them to vote against (the well agreement),” Sack said in a phone interview Monday with the Savannah Morning News. “We asked them to call a referendum, just put it in the hands of the people. And we just kept being told that they’re going forward with it.”
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According to Georgia law, signatures representing 10% of registered voters at the time of the November 2022 general election would be required to trigger the referendum. That means 4,495 certified voter signatures would be needed.
If the petition effort is successful, a special election likely would be held in late November or early December, said Lawton, who added that he and other petition organizers have been working with an attorney who advised that the Bulloch agreement could be nullified by voters.
Two Republicans who face no opposition for seats on the Bulloch Board of Commissioners in November – David Bennett and Ray Davis – are members of the petition group as is Ryan Brannen, the GOP nominee for District 1.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division will host a meeting to discuss the proposed permits Tuesday from 6-9 p.m. at Southeast Bulloch High School , 9184 Brooklet-Denmark Highway in Brooklet. EPD also will accept written comments through Aug. 20 at EPDComments@dnr.ga.gov.
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: Petition aims to stop wells for Hyundai's GA site; state to discuss permits Tuesday
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