Almost two years after Hyundai broke ground on its Metaplant in Bryan County, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper on Monday filed a letter of intent to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for what it sees as deficiencies in permits for the site.
The Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, known as the JDA, and the Georgia Department of Economic Development requested permits from the Army Corps to fill or disturb wetlands on the site even before the Hyundai deal was announced in May 2022. These permits are called 404 permits because they fall under section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which requires the Army Corps to collect information and analyze requests to impact “Waters of the U.S.” Read the permit decisions here.
At 2,541 acres, the Metaplant site is about the size of Tybee Island. The factory and an LG battery plant are expected to cost more than $5.5 billion and eventually generate 8,100 jobs, making what was first announced to be electric vehicles, but what might now include hybrid vehicles.
Before the land was clear cut for the development, it hosted about 625 acres of forested and scrub-shrub wetland. About a mile-length of stream flows through the land. Black Creek, which sits at the edge of the site, feeds into the Ogeechee River, a relatively nonindustrial blackwater river well-loved locally for its recreational opportunities.
“One of the Ogeechee Riverkeeper’s directives is to be a watchdog for water resources and make sure permitting processes are done correctly, ” Damon Mullis, riverkeeper and executive director said in a prepared statement. “When we find out that permit applicants withhold important information in an application and the permitting agency hasn’t done their due diligence, we will call them out and use the law to hold them accountable.”
Trip Tollison, president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority and a co-applicant for the permits on behalf of the JDA, said in an interview with The Current that he did not see this challenge coming. Construction has moved at breakneck speed since Hyundai broke ground at the site in October 2022. The company expects to begin producing vehicles there by the end of year.
“First of all, I’m disappointed,” Tollison said. “We’ve got a good relationship with the riverkeeper, and we’ve met with them several times. I’m friends with (board chairman) Clay Mobley…And we’ve facilitated meetings between Hyundai and the riverkeeper. And so this came definitely came out of left field. We were not expecting this at all.”
The Joint Development Authority is not named as a potential defendant in the letter.
U.S Army Corps Spokesman Ben Garrett acknowledged receipt of the Ogeechee Riverkeeper’s Notice of Intent to Sue regarding the Hyundai-Kia electric vehicle plant.
“Our policy is not to comment on potential litigation,” Garrett wrote. “The Corps’ Regulatory Program is committed to protecting the Nation’s aquatic resources and navigation capacity, while allowing reasonable development through fair and balanced decisions.”
Footprint growth
The riverkeeper says that despite major updates and changes to these permit requests between 2019 and 2022, the Corps did not reconsider the added impacts.
“The project itself grew quite a bit in footprint, Ogeechee Riverkeeper Legal Director Ben Kirsch said in an interview with The Current. “From the application materials, that (growth) was to support the expanded need with an EV plant as opposed to just a regular conventional car manufacturing plant.”
The footprint increased about 30%, from 1,944 acres to 2,541 acres, the applications show.
“What we’re most concerned there is that when you have something go that much larger, and when you’re applying for a new permit, it should be a fresh look at the permit application itself. And our concern was that a lot of this analysis seems at least to have been copied and pasted from the previous 2019 one.”
The second permit was applied for in June of 2022 and was approved in October of that year.
“So that’s really quick for a project this large,” Kirsch said. “Even if it’s re-application of a previously approved project, it should receive the same level of scrutiny, especially if its footprint is increasing by 500 acres.”
Tollison said the scrutiny was there and that the JDA worked quickly to finish the cultural resources review of the additional land, a process that’s often time consuming.
“I would say that a lot of the environmental reviews are required by the Corps of Engineer and were being completed over those years between 2014 and 2022,” Tollison said. The JDA initially applied for permits for the site to be used by Volvo. After that fell through, JDA went back to the Corps to get the site ready for a generic automotive manufacturer, even without an end user on the hook. When Hyundai agreed to the site the process accelerated in 2022.
“A lot of that information was already provided, (information) that usually takes a lot of time to gather,” Tollison said.
Tollison said the Ogeechee Riverkeeper was one of only two public commenters in 2022. The Riverkeeper’s concerns at that time included Hyundai’s “environmental track record; the lack of assurances that the plant would be built; and the adverse impacts the project may have on the Ogeechee River watershed and the region as a whole,” the permit decision indicates.
“Why did they not bring any of this stuff up during the public comment period and wait until now?” Tollison asked. “Because when you look at the letter they wrote, and then you look at the letter that I just got off the internet at lunch on the riverkeeper website, it’s a totally different playbook, if you will. So totally, I don’t know what’s going on over there.”
Water supply issues
The Army Corps also considered the impacts on municipal and private water supplies resulting from the Metaplant. The Ogeechee Riverkeeper contends “the agency accepted vague or nonexistent information regarding expected water usage, rather than insisting on specifics or conducting its own analysis.”
For example, the application stated that the amount of water needed was “unknown,” yet the Army Corps determined, “it would be reasonable to assume that the Bryan County supply is adequate” and “would not require water withdrawals or a permit from Georgia EPD.”
The permit does not address that Bryan County is in the state’s “yellow zone,” where new groundwater well permits have been limited due to saltwater intrusion. Neighboring Chatham is in the “red zone,” where groundwater withdrawal has been reduced for the same reason. (See FAQ: How much do you know about your water?)
Neither Hyundai nor the development agencies applied for the water withdrawal permits. Instead, Bryan and Bulloch counties last year applied to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for a total of about 6.6 million gallons a day to be pumped from four Floridan aquifer wells to be drilled in Bulloch County. Those permits have not yet been issued, but are already controversial, especially among Bulloch residents.
“We found that the steps taken did not fully assess the available information, or did not consider it at all,” Kirsch said in a prepared statement. “There was an assumption that existing water utilities could meet the demand, but it’s the job of the US Army Corps of Engineers to challenge that assumption and require more of the applicant.”
Tollison said the Joint Development Authority, formed in 2014, has been working with state regulators at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division on water issues since 2015. The JDA courted various companies with various water needs before landing Hyundai.
“We have been working with EPD for a long time, way before Hyundai,” Tollison said. “Because we’ve got this magic site — at least in our eyes it’s a magic site. And we’ve been we’ve been engaging EPD for years on how to supply this site with water.”
More opportunity for public comment will come once the EPD releases the draft permits for the wells in Bulloch, Tollison said. He expects them to be released later this month.
Piecemeal approach
The Hyundai Metaplant project was not reviewed in a holistic manner, according to the Riverkeeper, and the piecemeal approach prevented the full scope of impacts from being considered by agencies or the public. Water supply and wastewater treatment as wells as roads are needed for the Metaplant to function.
“So under the National Environmental Policy Act, it’s supposed to be one document one analysis of the total environmental impact from a project,” Kirsch said. “That includes the filling of wetlands and any water quality impacts that a 404 permit would look at. But that would also look at the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits that the wastewater treatment facility would require. It would require any other kind of satellite projects like that. So road expansions, you know, any sort of thing, all the piping that is going to be needed to get the groundwater to the site. And any sort of project that is necessary to make the site function as it’s being proposed, it should be considered in a NEPA review. And we don’t see that happen.”
Next steps
The Ogeechee Riverkeeper also names the Department of the Treasury in the letter, alleging it disbursed millions of dollars in infrastructure funding without adhering to the NEPA requirements. Savannah-based environmental attorney Don Stack, who won a $2.5 million settlement against King America Finishing for the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, wrote the letter.
In 18 pages he outlines the intent to sue and gives a 60-day notice before the Riverkeeper files a lawsuit for violations of the Administrative Procedures Act, Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. Read the letter here.
“Ogeechee Riverkeeper seeks the immediate halting of any construction or development
activity at or supporting the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America site until the procedural deficiencies discussed above are resolved,” the letter states. “Likewise, any federal funding must be frozen until the required environmental analyses are completed. Finally, ORK seeks the restoration of any and all environmental damage resulting from the improper approvals and disbursements to the extent practicable.”