During their meeting Monday, Interim County Manager Cindy Steinmann gave the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners the written information from 17 people who applied for three seats on the county's advisory committee for the Groundwater Sustainability Program, or Hyundai wells mitigation plan.

A fourth person could be named as an alternate to serve on the committee if one of the members could not attend meetings, she said. The process remains open for other people to apply until Tuesday, Feb. 4.

The mitigation program is a joint effort with Bryan County, which reportedly already has named three members and an alternate for its advisory committee.  Under the terms of the program agreement that the boards of commissioners in both counties approved in November and December, the committees will make recommendations to each county's well mitigation manager "on program implementation, objectives and other related matters."

"I've placed before you at your chairs the applications that we've received for the well mitigation committee," Steinmann told the Bulloch commissioners. "So from here I think you all need to decide how you want to go about reviewing and selecting those."

The advisory committees will be unpaid, but each county will appoint a well mitigation manager in a paid position.

However, the mitigation manager role could be — although not necessarily — an additional assigned role for a current county employee, Steinmann suggested.

"We had previous discussions about it," she said. "It can be done in a multitude of ways. One is to hire somebody that oversees this entire process, and another is to use a current staff member."

Steinmann is gathering information from the county government's consultants and considering "whether we even have staff that has the capacity to do it," she said. "I believe that Bryan County has already appointed their mitigation manager, as well as their committee members." 

Well drillers on call

A little later, the Bulloch County staff — or the mitigation manager, after one is hired — will be preparing a request for proposals from well drillers. Steinmann thought one well driller was needed, but Commissioner Nick Newkirk said he believed three are called for. That is the case, but the same three "responsive and experienced licensed local well drillers" could serve both counties, according to the wording of the Groundwater Sustainability Program document.

The well drillers would be on retainer-like contracts, on call to perform "approved mitigation measures."

Under the mitigation program agreement, the well mitigation managers will be required to "work collaboratively," meeting with each other at least quarterly. They are also expected to meet with each advisory committee "periodically as necessary, but no less than every six months," with these meetings between the managers and committee being open to the public in accordance with the Georgia Open Meetings Law.

Steinmann said she would advise commissioners to choose members for the committee who "have interest in the wells and the wellbeing of the water in the county but also can remain reasonable, unbiased to any extent possible."

Under the original terms of the plan, the managers are supposed to develop "a non-mandatory well registration program by March 1" with the purpose being to identify "at-risk wells." 

The managers are also expected to conduct "stakeholder outreach" with information on the county's websites, doorhangers, fliers and  mailings to property owners within the mitigation area and at least one workshop meeting to be between Feb. 1 and April 1. 

"That is the goal, but it will all depend on the speed in which we can establish the GSP mitigation committee and identify how we will select the Mitigation Manager," Steimann emailed in response to a follow-up question.

To supply water to the massive Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America manufacturing complex and potentially other customers in northern Bryan County, the two counties are installing four wells — two owned by Bulloch and two owned by Bryan, but all geographically within Bulloch County.

Reason for program

Permits issued Oct. 6 by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, or EPD, allow the four planned wells, together, to pump up to 6.625 million gallons per day over the course of a year. Bryan County's two wells, together, are permitted to withdraw up to 3.5 mgd on a monthly and annual average. Bulloch County's two wells are permitted for up to 3.5 mgd on a monthly average, but somewhat less, 3.125 mgd, as an annual average.

Based on hydrology studies, EPD scientists predicted that the four wells would draw down the water level in the deep Floridan aquifer by a maximum of 19 feet close to those wells. The "cone of depression" created by the withdrawal would slope upward from there, dropping the highwater mark about 10 feet at a five-mile distance from the wells, in the EPD's projections.

So the EPD made a mitigation program a requirement for the permits, along with a longer-term effort to replace the groundwater with surface water, such as from the Savannah River.

The mitigation program will pay for lowering the submersible pumps in or replacing any private deep wells that lose pressure or go dry within a five-mile radius of the Interstate 16-Georgia Highway 119 interchange, roughly the center point for the Hyundai supply wells.

Defined as having two "mitigation tracks," one for drinking water wells and one for non-drinking water wells, such as agricultural wells, the program would provide emergency drinking water to users of adversely affected privately-owned drinking water wells. Non-drinking-water well owners wouldn't be eligible for the emergency water, but owners of both types of wells would be eligible for full mitigation in terms of well repair or replacement.

The county is also expected to develop and implement the well registration forms. "Ideally, we would get those out to the property owners by March 1," Steinmann said to commissioners.

Monday's 8:30 a.m. meeting was the Board of Commissioners' second regular meeting of January, postponed from Tuesday, Jan. 21. Now, the commissioners will meet again just over a week later, for their first regular meeting of February, at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4.

Chairman David Bennett said the window for applications to the advisory committee will remain open until Tuesday.

"That gives anybody that's still interested in applying another seven days to apply," he said. "Then we can go forward as far as selecting somebody, the four people that we  need, three committee members and an alternate."