Sunday Solutions — Dec. 17, 2023
We’re celebrating the holiday a bit early this week and you should, too. After all, good news for us means good news for you. And today’s quiz is one for the year: Lots of questions, lots of points — and a prize — at stake. But first, there are growing pains and worries in Coastal Georgia over a basic need: water.
Development plans sparks water concerns
More than a hundred angry residents packed a Coastal Georgia Regional Water Council meeting last week in Statesboro to remind officials that water doesn’t recognize governmental boundaries. New water wells to the shared Floridan aquifer are planned just over the county line in Bulloch County to feed north Bryan County’s quick growth fueled by the Hyundai Metaplant. Well permits are already limited in Bryan County, sparking the move to drill next door. Speakers, who said they felt left out of the process, made it clear that they believe growth driven by new manufacturing plants will threaten their wells and their abilities to survive on their farms and homesteads. Environmentalists and engineers advocated for future development plans to shift focus to consuming surface water instead of water drawn from the aquifer. In all, four wells are planned for Bulloch — two will be owned by Bryan County and two by Bulloch, which will sell water to Bryan. The Current’s Mary Landers was at the meeting and has a deeper look at the arguments and the alternatives.
From the week
- “Log fumigation plan meets opposition in Liberty County,” Bulloch County isn’t the only place where residents are riled up at the state Environmental Protection Division over permitting. Last week, we reported on the plan for log fumigation with toxic chemicals in Liberty County. On Monday, residents and officials from Liberty and McIntosh counties organized to fight permits for the Weyerhaeuser fumigation site. The Current’s Liberty County reporter Robin Kemp reports the Riceboro gatherings were well-attended and focused on the effort.
- “Voting rights decision may curb push to diversify Georgia, Alabama utility commissions,” Plaintiffs in the effort to reconfigure the way Georgians vote for Public Service Commission members have appealed a court decision to leave statewide votes for district seats. The move could have consequences that resonate across state lines.
- “GDOT: Freight growth creates need for more highway funds,” The state Department of Transportation commissioner says it’s going to take a bigger budget — $81 billion — to keep up with necessary roads and bridges that will need to be built or expanded by 2050. Much of the need is fueled by freight projections from Savannah’s port as well as new manufacturing facilities being built in southeast Georgia.
News we can all use: two items
Regular readers will know that we like to share our good news — after all, your donations make our work possible every day. In the past week, we received word that we’ll be able to add a new reporter next year to serve Glynn County funded through the Report for America program and matched by donors who live in Glynn County. And, we became the first news organization in Georgia to earn a spot as a partner with The Trust Project after a rigorous compliance training and review of how we do our work.
- Glynn County: Report for America, the national service initiative to bring more journalists to underserved areas, has selected The Current for a second corps member. (Our first is public safety reporter Jake Shore.) RFA will place 50 reporters in various locations across the country, so it’s noteworthy to be selected for a second time. Donations by more than four dozen supporters in Glynn County will provide the funding match for the position.
- The Trust Project: You may have noticed a new, small T logo and the word Trust in various places on the web site. It means The Current is now part of The Trust Project, an international consortium of 75 news organizations committed to socially responsible journalism through transparency, inclusion and fairness in our work. The partnership is guided by 8 Trust Indicators that extensive research shows will help readers evaluate a news source for credibility and sort out those providing misinformation. The indicators address best practices and standards around funding, standards of ethics, reporting processes and how well we take feedback. Here’s a link to the indicators and our editorial practices and policies pages. The project is funded by the Trustworthy Journalism Initiative founded by craigslist founder Craig Newmark. We’re proud to be part of this initiative; we’ve worked hard to earn that T. However, we know you’ll be the real judges of how well we’re doing. Let us know.
None of this would be possible without your support. This week we head into the home stretch of this year’s NewsMatch fundraising campaign to help us prepare for 2024. We are grateful to all of you for supporting The Current by reading and sharing our stories and for the donations that allow us to serve Coastal Georgia with high quality, independent journalism you can use. Thank you.
A quiz for the year
Most Sundays, we give you the opportunity to test your news knowledge with a few short questions related to stories we published earlier in the week. In this last quiz for the year, we wanted to do something special to commemorate 2023.
So, here’s the Ultimate News Quiz, with questions from stories that span stories from the entire year. We’re confident that you, our faithful readers, are up for the challenge. There’s a prize waiting for the reader at the top of the next leaderboard.
Make sure to leave a first name or nickname so we can keep track of your score; also, be sure to leave the best email for us to contact you if you are our prize winner.
News Quiz Leaderboard for 12/10/23:
First Place (10/10) – Lawrence
Second Place (9/10) – Mike V.
Third Place (7/10) – EMF33, Laurie
Will you be the grand prize winner? Here’s the quiz to find out.
☕ Your second cup: Pandemic, shipping, prices
We all learned something about resilience during the pandemic — and so did Walmart. Here’s a story from Civil Eats about how the retail giant changed how it moved goods to work around pandemic shipping slowdowns to end up with more inventory and profits. The in-depth story looks at the effects of the pandemic on shipping consumer goods; why companies are trying to overhaul their supply chains; and how others are gaining extra influence for it all; and, more importantly, what it could mean for your wallets.
🎄Happy holidays!
Our newsletters will take a holiday break between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and we hope you will, too! Sunday Solutions will return in January ready to watch the Georgia legislature start its annual 40-day adventure and kick off what should be an interesting 2024. Thank you for reading in 2023. Now…go try out that quiz!
We want to meet your friends! If you like this newsletter be sure to share it.
Water plans for Hyundai trouble Bulloch residents
By Mary Landers
State, regional water officials hear water concerns from farmers, residents at meeting in Bulloch County.
Voting rights decision may curb push to diversify Georgia, Alabama utility commissions
By Kristi Swartz/Floodlight
The appeals court’s earlier decision, which is binding in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, could block a likely voting rights challenge to the way Alabama chooses its historically white utility commissioners as well.
Log fumigation plan meets opposition in Liberty County
By Robin Kemp
Weyerhaeuser, which owns tens of thousands of acres of forest in and around Riceboro, has applied to Georgia EPD’s Air Protection Division for an expedited permit to use methyl bromide, a highly volatile and toxic chemical, to prepare logs for shipping overseas.
GDOT: Freight growth creates need for more highway funds
By Dave Williams/Capitol Beat
Russell McMurry said other states in the Southeast that are spending more per capita on transportation projects than Georgia are getting the money to pay for those improvements from budget surpluses.
Support independent, solutions-based investigative journalism without bias, fear or favor on issues affecting Savannah and Coastal Georgia.
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