Clarification: May 15, 2025 3:50 p.m. Hyundai applied for and received a permit from Savannah to have its wastewater treated at the city’s facility.
Georgia regulators have fined Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America $30,000 for improper disposal of wastewater from its Bryan County electric vehicle manufacturing site.
That fine could have been larger under Georgia law, potentially surpassing $7 million.
Instead, officials from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America reached a settlement and, on April 25, signed a consent agreement that outlines the alleged violations and the agreed-upon fine.
“The Director has determined that an amicable disposition of the alleged violations set forth herein is in the best interest of the citizens of the State of Georgia,” the consent agreement notes.
The consent agreement alleges two violations: Hyundai discharged industrial wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works without an industrial pretreatment permit for such discharge; and it used a sewage holding tank at the facility for purposes other than receiving sanitary waste from construction trailers at a construction site.
The Current first reported on Hyundai’s wastewater troubles in March.
Hyundai’s initial wastewater disposal problems date to September. As the EV plant began production that month, it needed to dispose of its industrial wastewater from processes including metal finishing and car washing.
Construction of the EV plant had outpaced the construction of a new $129 million North Bryan County wastewater treatment facility just across I-16. Anticipating a short-term need for wastewater treatment until the Bryan facility came online, Hyundai applied for and received a permit from the city of Savannah to have its wastewater treated at the city’s Travis Field facility. But that pre-arranged stopgap treatment, which began in September, lasted only a few weeks before Hyundai’s wastewater exceeded the limits on contaminants, including copper and zinc, and the city stopped accepting Hyundai’s wastewater.
As a large municipality with extensive wastewater treatment capability, Savannah issues its own permits to companies seeking treatment of industrial wastewater. The April 25 consent agreement does not address the violation of the permit Savannah issued to Hyundai. But Savannah did take action, officials said.
“The penalty for pretreatment permit violation was the cessation of flow on Sept. 26, 2024,” wrote city spokesman Joshua Peacock. “Flow has not resumed.”
With Travis Field unwilling to take the wastewater, Hyundai began a “pump and haul” operation that has continued to the present. It involves holding wastewater onsite in sewage holding tanks and trucking it out to third-party treatment facilities, two of them publicly owned.
Treating industrial wastewater at a publicly owned wastewater treatment facility without first getting a pretreatment permit is not allowed. Hyundai hauled its waste to the Richmond Hill facility late last year. It also pumped waste to a tank on the Bryan County facility across I-16. These alleged violations occurred for about 143 days from about October 1, 2024, until February 21, 2025, EPD officials confirmed.
Georgia law provides for fines of up to $50,000 a day for each day that a violation occurs. That means the maximum allowable fine for this alleged violation totals $7.15 million.
That use of the sewage-holding tanks after the construction period has ended is not allowed under Georgia law. That practice appears to have begun at the Hyundai facility around Oct. 1, 2024. It continues to the present, though the company is working with regulators to resolve this violation and, in the meantime, follow the conditions of the consent order to ensure safe operation of pumping and hauling the contents of the holding tanks, according to EPD officials. It’s unclear how many days they would have been subject to a fine under this alleged violation.
Savannah and Bryan County officials declined to comment on the fines placed on Hyundai.
The Ogeechee Riverkeeper, which discovered the wastewater issues as a result of Georgia Open Records Act requests, said the alleged violations are serious.
“Industrial waste being delivered to non-permitted treatment facilities is an imminent threat to our water resources and human health,” Ogeechee Riverkeeper wrote in a prepared statement. “We are glad to see the Georgia EPD take enforcement actions against these violations and expect it will serve as a deterrent to industrial wastewater producers against any future violations. We hope that the facility has been able to correct whatever issues have been preventing it from meeting the City of Savannah’s pretreatment standards, and we encourage Bryan County to require the facility to meet pretreatment standards that protect the Ogeechee River before allowing any industrial wastewater to be discharged to the new North Bryan Water Reclamation Facility.”
EPD has not yet signed off on a plan to return Hyundai to compliance with wastewater disposal.
“Wastewater is currently being transported to off-site permitted facilities. HMGMA has submitted its Corrective Action Plan to Georgia EPD and is waiting for their review and approval,” HMGMA spokeswoman Bianca Johnson wrote in an email. “Following EPD approval, HMGMA intends to return to the use of Travis Field until operations begin at the Bryan County Wastewater Reclamation Facility.”
That’s still months away.
“As far as the Water Reclamation Facility, the county is anticipating it being operational in Q3 of this year (August-October timeframe),” Bryan County spokesman Nicholas Beard wrote in an email.
The Tide brings regular notes and observations on news and events by The Current staff.
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