The Bulloch County commissioners this week authorized County Manager Tom Couch to submit a permit application to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for a public water system with a single identified wholesale customer, the Bryan County water system. Bryan County would pay for water from two large wells Bulloch County would own and supply it, in turn, to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America and other Bryan County customers.

This permit application is distinct from the two applications – filed by the Bulloch and Bryan County governments last fall and not yet approved – for Bulloch to drill two wells together capable of pumping up to 3.15 million gallons per day and Bryan two wells capable of pumping up to 3.5 mgd, but with all four wells located in southeastern Bulloch County near the counties’ shared boundary.

If the EPD approves both the “groundwater withdrawal” permits for Bulloch County’s two wells and its “public water system” permit, that still will not allow the county government to operate a water system distributing treated groundwater directly to residential and commercial customers within the southeastern part of Bulloch County, Couch said in an interview Thursday. He and other Bulloch officials still hope to create such an in-county water service, but doing so will require yet a third type of EPD permit.

“At this time it would allow us to operate the system with the two wells that we own, out of the four, and it’s kind of a second step in the process of permitting,” Couch said. “The third step would be a drinking water permit, and we’re not there yet with establishing our own utility. But we do need to be able to have the permits for the wells and provide the wholesale water to Bryan County.”

Later when Bulloch’s government applies for that third level, “drinking water” permit, to start a county-operated residential and commercial system, it will probably apply to use only 300,000 to 315,000 gallons per day at first, a relatively small portion of the water from the four wells, he said.  Based on typical U.S. water usage, 315,000 gallons per day would supply more than 1,000 households.

The authorization for Couch to file the initial “public water system” application was approved by the county commissioners during their Tuesday, March 19, regular meeting as one of 10 “consent agenda” items handled through a single motion, second and unanimous vote.

A box checked on the application indicates it is for a “community” water system that will serve “at least 15 service connections, used by year-round residents” or “regularly” serve “at least 25 year-round residents.” But in a chart for counting “service connections and population served,” only a “1” is entered in the “number” space for “wholesale systems providing water to another permitted water system,” and “Bryan  County Water System” has been typed in.

Bulloch County’s two wells with “total permitted withdrawal” totaling 3.15 mgd are identified as the groundwater sources. But the maximum capacity of each  well and its pump is given as a per-minute rate, 2,000 gpm.

Other boxes are checked to indicate that water will be treated with chlorination and fluoridation, and that the water system will also require a Georgia EPD permit or certification for erosion and sediment control

Couch  is listed as the water system’s administrative and owner contact person. The application identifies Erney K. Pearson III at Tindall Enterprises, an environmental  services firm in Blackshear, as the water system operator and Kelvin S. Seagraves of Hofstadter & Associates Inc. in Macon as the engineer.

Couch said he might be able to sign and submit the application on Friday, March 22.

Meanwhile, the EPD had not issued the well permits as of March 21, but it published “special conditions” in January for their potential approval and then held a public information and feedback meeting in the Southeast Bulloch High School auditorium the evening of Feb. 26. Before that meeting, consulting engineers working the Bulloch and Bryan County governments said well permit approval was likely in 30 to 60 days, Couch recalled Thursday.

Asked if that should mean by May 1, he said, “We hope. There are probably hopes to have it done sooner.”

As recently reported, Hyundai wants the electric vehicle plant “to be in some kind of production in November of this year,” Couch noted, and said, “So EPD is going to have to hustle.”

Couch expects the water system permit to be approved with the well permits or soon after.

Revenue from Hyundai

If the permits are approved and the system built as planned, the Bulloch County government will not be giving the water away. Hyundai Motor Group, and potentially other customers of the Bryan  County system, will pay Bryan County for the water supplied from Bulloch County’s two wells, and Bryan County will in turn pay Bulloch.  If Bryan County is permitted to drill the two wells it plans to own within southeastern Bulloch, the Bryan  County government will receive the water usage fees paid by its customers but is expected to pay Bulloch a “host fee” for those wells.

At its previous regular meeting on March 5, the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners approved a “sub-award agreement” reassigning $7.5 million from a larger grant Bulloch County previously received under the  American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, to Bryan County. This money, specifically Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, or CSLFRF, will provide Bulloch County’s 12% share of infrastructure costs for the development of the Bryan County Mega Site, where the Hyundai plant is being  built.

Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham and Effingham counties had, in 2022, agreed to share in these costs, and then to share proportionally in revenue from “payments in lieu of taxes,” or “PILOT” to be paid by Hyundai Motor Group and other new industries at the site.

Bulloch should recoup the $7.5 million from 2028 to 2030 and continue to receive a PILOT share through 2048, for eventual revenue of about $38 million, county Chief Financial Officer Kristie King said previously.

That will be separate from the well revenues. Couch said he needs to do some fresh and more precise analysis to provide a current projection of what Bulloch could receive from the water usage and well host fees.

A memo commissioners received about the $7.5 million payment indicated that Bulloch County’s staff was prioritizing the water supply for the Hyundai plant.

“Administration proposes using CSLFRF funding that was previously planned to be spent on a county-owned public water utility system in the southeastern portion of the County to be directed to Bryan County and explore other funding options to build out a county-owned system in the future,” it stated.