Atlanta’s growth, failing pipes, and tri-state politics colliding over one finite resource.
Sept 26, 2025 – Georgia Science Junction.
Georgia’s “Water Wars” aren’t just courtroom drama with Alabama and Florida—they’re a daily operating constraint for metro Atlanta. Veteran USGS hydrologist John Clarke walked through why: a huge, multi-use Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system where tiny headwaters feed outsized demand, with Lake Lanier (just 6% of basin area) supplying ~60%+ of storage and propping up minimum flows for drinking water, power cooling, navigation, fisheries, and endangered mussels. After decades of litigation, a 2021 Supreme Court loss kept Georgia’s current use intact, but the fundamentals haven’t changed: flows are finite, droughts bite, and every inter-basin transfer or new withdrawal shifts pain downstream.
Inside metro Atlanta, aging sewers and combined sewer overflows remain the ugliest risk vector. Atlanta and DeKalb have long-standing consent decrees after chronic spills driven by storm infiltration, fats/oils/grease (fogs), root intrusion, and 19th-century pipes meeting a 21st-century city. Relief tunnels now capture storm surges for delayed treatment, but deadlines loom (2027 for DeKalb) and failure means more raw sewage in creeks and bigger rate hikes. Translation: water quality is a governance and execution problem as much as an engineering one. And we got into this mess because water and sewage are typically “Out of sight; out of mind.”
Looking forward, population growth toward ~8M by 2050 collides with thirsty industry—especially data centers, with single sites projected near 6 MGD—threatening to reignite tri-state fights. Conservation works (low-flow toilet retrofits cut demand and even helped Georgia’s legal case), but it won’t be enough alone. Clarke’s take is clear: get brutally realistic about supply (no, the Tennessee River isn’t a magic tap), set hard allocation rules for industry, price scarcity, keep sewer upgrades on schedule, and treat surface- and groundwater as one system. Do that, and Georgia can grow without triggering the next lawsuit—or the next spill.
Check out the live stream
Until the live stream is cleaned up, the talk starts at 34:57
Hello. Can you all hear me? I got a thumbs up. Sounds great.
Is this actually? Oh my god, look at that. Hi everyone.
I’m Amy. Lex Olivia. Nice to meet you guys. Uh, I’m
feel like we should do this now. Uh, I’m Amy Chararma. I’m the executive director of Science for Georgia.
Super excited to have y’all here tonight. Thanks for being here. Uh, Science for Georgia um is an
organization that exists to get science out of the lab and onto the streets. So, we have three main activities. Science
communication training, science outreach adult uh events for adults. So, thanks for being adults and
coming to our outreach event. I really appreciate that. And uh then we do go down to the Georgia General Assembly and
and advocate for the responsible use of science and public policy. So, we’re doing a really good job there. Um, but
we’re gonna we’re going to do better. Uh, do you have a question? No. Okay. Just
just livening things up. Uh, but I am really excited about this because uh our
topic tonight is water wars and water is becoming even more precious and fought
over in Georgia. So, fun to kind of really dig into the history of how we
got here. Um, I didn’t move to Georgia until like 2014.
Um, but I know there’s like a long history of fighting with neighboring states over water and like whenever I’m
talking about advocating with my water friends, they always bring up this like long history. So,
yay, we’re learning new things. [Music]
All right. So, our speaker tonight is John Clark. He is a retired assistant
director USGS Georgia Water Science Center.
Um, he was a hydraologist. Oh, sorry. I’m sorry. We’re gonna get
there. He should be bigger. He is a hydraologist. You don’t just stop being a hydraologist
when you retire. He was the assistant director for her hydraulic investigations. He authored
more than 50 papers on Georgia groundwater. I know twice served as president of the
Georgia groundwater association. Uh he studied the potential for offsite
migration of contaminants at the US Department of Energy Savannah River site.
kind of really cool development of the hydraulic overview of Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories.
I know, right? And he designed and implemented the Georgia coastal sound
science initiative. So, this is really awesome. I like John’s a rockar. Yes.
Yeah, I know. I should have put this like at the top. We’re learning new things. It’s in the bio. I know, but no one reads the bio. That
was like three paragraphs down. Next time we’re going to be like rock star. Yeah. All right. Thanks for that. Uh but
I am like honored to bring John to the stage. Take it away, John.
[Applause] All right. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you very much. Is that coming through loud and clear? Louder. I can’t hear us.
Okay. Um, pleasure to be here today. Um, going to talk to you about the water
wars that have Georgia has been involved in um
with our neighbors basically, but also internally. We have wars amongst ourselves. Um, this is going to focus
mostly on metro Atlanta. We’re going to talk all about, you know,
what’s the water competition here for with the other states and amongst ourselves. Uh what are some of the water
quality issues and what’s the outlook for the future?
So this is the uh the topic Georgia water wars. You’ll see uh you see the
state flags for Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Um and you’ll notice that
there’s some cannons involved in this shot. And uh this is actually a real
photo from the Savannah area. That’s the Savannah waterfront there. And those
cannons are pointed towards South Carolina. And so I always loved uh this photo because that was back when I was
working on the coastal sound science initiative which is about the issue that related to the saltwater intrusion at at
Hilton Head. And um it just so happened I was there a day where they doing these maneuvers there, these shooting the
cannons off. Perfect. So I took a picture because that’s another water warrior. We’re fighting over ground
water between South Carolina and Georgia. So this happened to be a perfect timing.
So water most precious resource lifeblood of our planet and for
millennia there’s been conflicts and competitions for it use. And uh I actually taught a course called water
wars that covered the entire planet. It talked about the history of it. talk
about the Middle East, the western US and other places throughout the world. And then of course here in Georgia,
just a large well, that’s a well that’s down in Brunswick, Georgia that can pump over 11,000 gallons a minute.
So water, there’s a lot of there’s some expressions. First is on the left there is water flows toward money. Okay, so we
know Las Vegas, right? where all the money is and by God somehow they they
developed a place that could get water in the middle of the desert and Hoover Dam there and there’s all sorts of
issues related there for water then Mark Twain in the middle there whisy’s for
drinking water is for fighting over and then that bottom one is uh
disputing water rights a western past
so it all begins with the water cycle and Of course, that starts with rainfall, precipitation, snow coming out
of the sky, falls on the ground. Um, some of it’s lost to evaporation. Uh,
some of it seeps into the ground and becomes groundwater. And then some, uh,
flows off the land surface and becomes the rivers and streams.
So, if we look at Earth’s water, most of the water on the earth is uh, salt water. Okay? only 3% of the water on
Earth is fresh water. So it is truly a precious resource of the fresh water um
most of it is trapped in ice caps and glaciers. Okay, all the fresh water but
about 30% of it is in groundwater.
So um and then surface water is only 1.2%.
It’s much more plentiful underground. So per capita water use, what’s that?
That’s basically the amount of usage per person. Okay? And as you might expect,
the poor countries of the world use very little per person. I was just in Uganda
a few weeks ago and I can testify to this. I saw these little kids going out just like this with their water jugs to
the community spring and they would fill that jug up and carry it back to the house, you know, however long of a walk
that was. So they weren’t going in and taking, you know, 20 minute showers and
things like that. So at the other end of the spectrum, we have us of course who
is the the biggest users the US 150 gallons per day per person. We are, you
know, the pigs if you want to call us that. Um, and you have giant communities with pools.
That’s actually Tony Soprano there.
Okay. So, what are the issues in metro land? You have competition for the available supply. Um, and there are
required minimum flows that you must keep in the streams. That’s monitored by stream flow gauging, which is what the
USGS the folks that I used to work for do they they monitor what the flows are
in the rivers. Um another issue here is uh related to that is water needed to
flush the sewage out. The solution to pollution is dilution right? So if you don’t have that then you’ve got a mess
basically. Uh you have to worry about what’s the downstream users needs are.
And of course all this led to the interstate water war that we’re having or we had between Florida and Alabama.
Okay. And then so and then projecting into the future, there is a shortfall of
available water going into the future. We’ll talk all about that. Then finally in Atlanta, big issue is sewage spills,
okay? Where water from sew sewers that are way outdated from the uh you know
that were built in the 1800s cannot handle the load of a modern city.
million people sitting on top of it. So, Atlanta is setting. So, we’re
located on the eastern continental divide, which is an upland area,
basically a ridge that’s favorable for transportation such as roads and railroads. It was part of a trail system
used by Native Americans. So, they would walk along the ridge
here and that bridge goes all the way up into the mountains north.
It’s the headarters of five major rivers. So you have off this off these off this divide, some of the water flows
toward the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve been waiting to say that for a long time
and then the other part flows to the Atlantic Ocean. So
it’s headquarters of these five major rivers. Uh in 1837, the location spot
where the Western Atlantic Railroad terminated and got the name Terance. That was it original name.
So in this area because you have all these different rivers that are heading up in Atlanta, you have
basically five different water basins that are right next to each other. And what happens there is that um we have
what’s called innerbasin transfer. That’s where the water is maybe pumped out of one river and when they put it,
they do their it becomes sewage. Then where do they pump it? They pump it to another river. So that’s that happens.
Um where they’re showing here the uh the Chattahuchi River, you’ve got water
flowing out quite a bit actually, but you have some coming back in
the Flint River that’s coming and going. So if you look
at the net flow, if you take all the water that’s coming in and subtract the that’s going out. There’s a net outflow
of 99 million gallons a day. The river is losing water to the other basins that
are in the area. So to deal with all this intervas stuff,
the the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District was established back
in 2001. Uh and they are staffed by the Atlanta Regional Commission personnel.
Um basically they’re one of the most comprehensive water management programs in the US. They develop very proactive
developing water plans and managing the water and educating the public. Uh
they’re very uh they do a great job.
So this tri-state water we have two major basins. We have the Alabama Cusa Talapusa which
is this area here and then you have the Chatti
which is this green arrow and this is the one that’s been really in the news. This is the one where the most contentious uh issues have come up and
that’s what most of this talk is going to talk about but it’s been over two decades of
litigation between Alabama and Georgia and that’s Clarence Darrow there. It hasn’t been quite that long, but
Clarence Dar spokes monkey
1920s, I guess it was.
No, no, this guy.
So the Appalacha, Chattahuchi, Flint, we call it the ACF basin. ACF
and uh it covers over 19,600 square miles in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
Most of it’s in Georgia. 74% of that water basin is in Georgia. And it
supplies over 60% of the drinking water for Georgia, lesser amounts in Alabama and Florida. Interesting thing about
this is so you have this humongous basin but most of the water is in this place right up here. Anybody know what that
is? Lake. Lake. That’s it. So here we are. This is
this is the end of the basin here. So look at this small area that the water when the rainfall hits the ground that’s
drain into Lake Plane. So that’s only 6% of the total basin size. But this
provides over 62% of the entire water in the basins provided by this lake. So um
and so there’s a intense competition for this water between the various states. I’ll tell you a little bit more about
Lake Laneir. So it was completed in 1956 when they made Buford dam. It principal
purpose was for flood control and power generation. But it also was used for recreation,
water supply, navigation and fish and wildlife management. It’s over 7.5
million visits a year. When we talk about the amount of storage that it
provides for the whole ACF basin, but it only covers 6% of the bas.
So with this knowing this, what’s happened here is why it has so much water in it is it’s so deep. 160 ft is
pretty deep and so it can hold a lot of water and plus it’s being fed by even
though it’s a small area only 6% of the total basin. It’s the area of the heaviest rainfall in the state. So you
get tons of rainfall and it drains off and goes into the lake. Yes. How did they figure out?
How do they figure out what because there’s rain all over and they
they make maps out of that. They know where it’s happening. So
yeah. So all right. So now I’m going to just go
through this is sort of a sequence of slides just showing you how how much water how water is being used in the
basin. So this is another thing but okay thermmo electric power okay so that’s your uh you know the burn coal burning
plants for example but we also have nuclear in Alabama this plant is in
Alabama all the others are coal fire plants gas modified plants
hydroelectric power couple reservoirs in within the basin that are generate electricity that way
navigation. So that’s where you got to keep the channel at a certain depth so that the barges can carry up supplies,
you know, crops or whatever they’re carrying in the basin. Recreational
boating throughout of course Lake, a bunch of that commercial fishing, that’s basically
down here, the Appalachiccola Bay where the uh oysters are. That’s that’s really
the bone of contention with Florida. It’s all based oysters. Um, recreational fishing throughout the
basin. Industry. So, industry is pretty prevalent throughout the basin.
Endangered species. Now, this is basically muscles. They have all sorts of muscle
species that are endangered. And what happens is when the land goes dry because of the river’s been over, you
know, pumped or, you know, during drought conditions, the muscles will die.
And then there’s irrigation which is throughout mostly in the Clinton River basin and that’s mostly ground water and
ground water interacts with surface water. So it affects the stream flows. So I can show you that
public supply that’s mostly up in metro Atlanta but you can see it’s scattered throughout
even down to Columbus. sewage disposal. So this is where after
the water’s used, it’s put back into the river after they clean it up. So that’s
mostly in the Atlantic area. So I mentioned flow requirements. This
is mandated by the EP um where they have certain requirements.
So up here in Atlanta, this is metro Atlanta, they must maintain a flow of 750 cubic feet per second.
waste water that’s put back into the river. And cubic foot of water is about
about the amount of water held in a basketball. So that’s like 750 basketballs floating per second through
an area. Um further down river we have oops we have
power plant cooling. So this is a coal fired plant and they want to cool the
water when it’s put back in. Then we have
This is Lake Seinal down the southern part of the state and it needs flow for
variety of reasons and then another power plant downream of that lake.
So at Atlanta you have this minimum flow of 750 cubic feet per
second. Um this is immediately upstream of of Peach Street Creek. This is
monitored by the USGS stream gauge. That’s a very critical thing. It’s like
it’s used for like legal purposes and all that that data from that that place. Um
let’s see this that flow was in place since the 70s. Make sure that you have enough water coming in there to flush
the sewage out. So this all happened. So here we are at Lake. We get up here. We have water
coming out for water supply. But they actually actually some sewage goes back in that lake. They clean it
and they put it back in. When it comes downream, you got the land takes it water out. The cab. But they also put
back some sewage over here
takes water out. But here’s where all this where that flow requirement takes place. So we’re down here. Here’s the
USGS stream gauge keeping making sure it’s 750 CFS. But then Atlanta takes its
water out and then right below right downream is where it goes right back in. So that it’s kind of amazing. You’re
getting your drinking water and then right immediately you’re putting that back sewage in like within very small
distance really. What’s that?
So moving on down. This is the nuclear power plant in Alabama that was put in
1970 and another unit was put in in 77 uh supplied over 20% of the electricity
to Alabama and it’s got a 2000 CFS 2000 basketball per second requirement.
Lake SEL completed in 1957 with the Woodrip Lock and Dam. Um it does flood
control, hydroelectric power, navigation, fish, wildlife, and general recreation. It’s only 6% of the basin
storage as opposed to linear which is like 62%. Um and it has a minimum flow requirement
that’s variable because there’s it’s based on an operational plan that the core of engineers has that If it’s if
it’s this uh uh condition outside, you know, we have to protect the animals,
let’s say, or we need to control for the flooding and things like that. It’s based on a variety of parameters and the
core of engineers monitor that. Moving downream from Lake Simo, we go to
the next coal fired plant that was opened in 1953
and it’s got a 4,000 CFS requirement which is needed to uh you know of course
cool the water off but also to maintain the depth so that they can suck the water out to use in the plant. certain
depth of the pipes going to that level. And then finally, the Appalach Bay,
which is the largest oyster fishery in the southeast with over 134
million dollars of handling.
So storage from Lake Air is important for maintaining the flow requirements
and it’s very uh strictly monitored. Um
it’s USGS gauge which instead of measuring the stream flow measures the height of
the reservoir. How deep is the is the water.
So these are some of the critical elevations in that lake. So if the water
levels were to drop below,71 ft you would start having problems with
recreational. People’s docks are going to go dry. the beaches are going to go away and it’s going to be just not a
pleasant place to to play in. Um power generation will uh begin to fall off at
1,035 ft elevation. Uh water supply will have issues it gets below,25 and then
there will be no power generation at all if you get to 120 because you’re getting below their intakes for the turbines.
The lowest elevation reported was 1050 uh in December of 2007 during severe
drought. So that’s falling in this in this area below the recreational issue and above
the power generation. That’s just looking at what the lake
looked like at that time period. How dry it got pretty ugly looking.
little all these little fingerling inlets were just dried up. Imagine what real estate values were
like throughout here.
So flows in Florida. So Lake Simol here is where the Chattahuchi
and the Flint River come together. And then there’s a dam and it forms this
reservoir and then the flow out of there becomes goes into the Appalach.
So the af
has a pronounced interaction with the rivers. So if you pump from wells you may be impacting the stream flow and
that also which goes on with those muscles. Heavy pumping can lower the levels and then
they get they get dry land and they die.
Some of the water in Lake flows into the aquifer through caverns in the limestone.
So this is the flows to Lake Seol. So about 34% comes from the Flint River, 47
from the Chattahuchi, about 18 from the ground. and then flowing out of it. But most of
it’s coming right through the dam, but you also have some ground water seeping out. You lose some from
evaporation. And then this is just sort of a fudge factor. It’s like water budget that it’s the plus or minus
basically on all these other. So this just looking at some interesting
photos. So here’s the when they were constructing Lake Sol, they came across these giant caverns and I mean they
pumped like millions of tons of grout into that to fix that. So if you had a
business invested back in 19 54, it should have been the cement business down near Lake.
Um this is actually was taken in modern day and it’s still leaking. This is a
whirlpool happening in the lake. So where the water is is seeping out and going into the ground.
So this is showing uh the irrigation down there. This is the biggest area of irrigation in the state. And you’ve
probably when you’ve flown around, you’ve seen these circular patterns on the ground. That’s where they have these
center pivot irrigation systems that they use well supplies.
Here’s your Lake Simol. And then this is the Flint River Basin and the Chattahuchi.
So a lot of pumping going on here.
So the interaction of ground water and surface water um you know under
unstressed conditions and natural conditions the water rainfall enters the aquifer and it flows
laterally and discharges into the stream. Okay. But then when you put a well in that intercepts some of that
flow and actually might even pull start pulling it out of the river. It’s
severing. So you’re intercepting reducing the amount getting in the stream and here you are where you’ve
actually reversed the flow and you’re pulling the water from the stream to the well.
So where does the pumping most affect the stream flow? And intuitively you
would say the closer you are to the stream it’s going to go. Well that’s
true. And then this groundwater model was used to actually delineate where
sensitive to that. So the red areas, the hot colors show where if you put a well in there,
you’re going to definitely you have a good probability of impacting the stream flow. And the results of this were used
to guide a withdrawal permiting decisions by the EPD. And for a while there was a total
moratorum down there. They didn’t let you put any wells in at all.
So talking about the legal issues and I’m not a lawyer so I’m not I don’t want to get into all the nuances of this but
I just sort of give you a general broad brush. So two decades they’ve been fighting over water in this area and a
lot of lawyers have been getting rich. Okay, very rich. Millions and millions of dollars have been spent on just
litigation. Um basically it’s focused on legal
challenges to the core’s management of the reservoirs both the ACF and the ACT.
Um in addition there was a direct challenge by Florida that went to the Supreme Court regarding how Georgia uses
the water and get into that.
So, okay. So, the act
the Alabama um
1980 metro Atlanta was looking to get additional water supplies from Lake Alatuna
and that dragged on for about 10 years. They kept asking for it, but the core wouldn’t do anything. U then Alabama got
concerned and sued the core to block any action on increasing the withdrawal from
Lake Alatun by Georgia. So they actually sued the core on that. So that kept
going on for years and years. And then finally in 2021
after a reallocation study and environmental
statement the core granted nature lands request for taking more water out of
um one of the key uh decisions decision was that they allowed um
the foring back of that fluid back into the lake.
So they would allow that water to go back in the lake and then they could claim that as part of the storage of of
the reservoir. So that was a big issue there going to let them do that.
So the ACF, which we’ve been talking about most of the talk, um Florida sued
Georgia back in 2014, um they wanted the water to be equally
aortioned between the states and they wanted to lock Georgia at 1992 pumping,
which I showed you those cannons earlier. I think the cannons might have come out if that if that actually happened because I mean that’s just that
you’d have to be basically removing people could not support the population
here if you did that. Um, in 2021, the
Supreme Court denied Florida’s request and dismissed the complaint. They said they did not do an adequate job of
presenting why Georgia should not be allowed to have that water.
And also, they didn’t do a sufficient job of proving that Georgia took water out and that
affected the oyster industry. They blamed Georgia for taking too much flows into the Appalachin
and then made it a bad habitat for the oysters and cut back on the yields from there.
So uh in March of 2017 the core adopted a master water control plan
and then environmental impact statement that incorporate all these things they’ve learned over the 20 years of
fooling around with this issue and basically explains how the water
will be aortioned throughout the throughout the basin.
There was another law, another suit was filed to challenge the operation manual
and the US court in Georgia
in favor of the court and but they’re still appealing that decision.
So now we shift over away from water quantity to water quality and sewers are
a big issue in metro Atlanta. city and also in county. So, it’s where
water uh it cannot be properly treated and it backs up and it comes out just
raw and untreated. That’s what you’re seeing here. I guess you’ve seen these when you go on little hikes. You go see
those little elevated um sewer manholes. You know, the reason they’re elevated is
that they’re trying to keep the pressure head above land surface so that the water can’t get out. Here’s where the
pressure is. because there’s so much water overwhelmed the uh the piping and
just come out. That’s why they raise them up like that is so that they have a high enough head so that the water will
not get out. Um, of course these are, you know, all sorts of nasty things, you
know, E.oli being a major part of that. Uh, and then it’s an issue both in Atlanta and in
so in the county and I happen to be me a technical advisor to the citizens
committee that is advising the county on whole sewage sewage issue. So I’ve been
involved in this for five or six years. Um, reasons for span. The aging and
inadequate infrastructure, you know, the pipes are old. Fat oils and grease, otherwise known as
fog, which could clog up the pipes. Heavy rain and inflow and infiltration,
cracks in the pipe, other ways that the ground water can get into the pipes.
Improper disposal waste such as people putting wet wipes, paper towels, and
hygiene products. You know, they claim that they’re disposable. They’re not.
They always, that’s one of the big things they try to educate people saying, “Don’t believe it. It’s not true. Don’t put disposable wet wipes
down your toilet.” Um, and then of course there’s tree roots that can grow in and block crack sew.
So just looking at some of these things, we have roots coming in here, getting
into the pipes, cracking through gaps in the pipes and getting into the pipes, having the cracks in the pipe. That’s
You can uncap things like you can have man. I was amazed at this. They actually said that they went through and were
trying to seal all you know the holes in the top of the man they used to take the pry bar to get to get the thing off.
They said that that actually can contribute a lot of water to into the sewage system. So they actually going
around and plugging covering those holes up so that they uh would not let water
of course you have crack pipes and so forth.
So f it’s basically the hardening of the sewer’s arteries. Okay.
Um it enters the plumbing system through garbage disposal sinks and toilets and
it can just plug the whole thing up. Of course you can imagine that if a restaurant doesn’t do their job and put
it in the thing that could be devastating. So they actually, you know, they’re under regulation. They have to dispose of their grease and they have
those, you’ve been behind a restaurant. Kind of nasty back there, but they have the they have the bins to put the grease
in. Yeah. And that’s because of this. So the sewage the timeline of sewer
problems in the cab. So there was major spill back in 2006 and that led to the
EPA opened EPA’s eyes. They said, “What’s going on here?” and
by 2010 EPA and the Georgia EP actually filed a civil complaint and it was
resulted in the cons consent decree. Anybody heard about that consent the consent decree which is basically
they said they they must do certain things to avoid being fined.
It was finalized in 2011. They had to upgrade the system and
half a million dollar civil penalty. And this is what I’ve been watching as I’ve
gone to these meetings. I’ve been seeing what they’ve been doing about it.
So in 2017, a record sewage spill occurred back down Finger Creek south of
town. Um and then another one 9.2 million gallon in 2020.
U it was just because the plant was overwhelmed by heavy rains. And I can tell you from what I’ve seen, the rains
are the worst problem. That’s that’s the biggest problem for how these sewers
have issues. Um, so 2025 they Department of Justice noted
that the CA was they were concerned that the CA wasn’t going to meet their 2027 deadline.
and u the consent degree was just modified
kept under higher scrutiny. So now it’s in a race and it’s time to complete the necessary upgrades by the 2027 deadline.
That’s what this citizens oversight committee is involved and we’re trying to try to keep you know hold the fire to
their feet a little bit make sure that they’re moving forward with that. Yes.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. The sewer rates in the county are insane. It’s
It’s all I mean, sorry. It’s a water rate, but it’s really water and sewer and you’re paying for this is what
you’re paying for. You know, the water supply is nothing. It’s this what cost the money.
So, Atlanta sewers. Okay. So, they were built beginning of the 19th century.
Some areas they combine storm water and household waste. So that that’s a very
big issue. Talk more about that. Um 1930s new sewer systems were built but
the system still struggled to keep up with the city’s explosive growth and increased paved surfaces which increases
the amount of storm water going into the sewers.
the system became severely overloaded. Raw sewage spills were happening
95 the Chattahuchi River Caper and you guys might know you probably had I don’t know if you had Sally but they come in
here and talk to you all but she’s you know that was her thing. She was in the middle of all that. Um
so they filed a federal lawsuit for violating the clean water act
and then the court ruled in their favor and that said the city was viable. Uh and a consent decree was wassued uh
which required Atlanta to implement a comprehensive plan to overall its sewer system. I know working at USGS we were
involved in this in that we u monitor the stream water quality which is a way
of measuring how how well the modifications have done for. So um
so combined sewer overflows this is where both your sanitary sewers and your
storm water goes to the same place. So you have a
here’s your sanitary sewer. Okay. It goes to the treatment plant, but they also have drains coming, storm
drains from the street, from the roofs, whatever would be put in the same pipe. So you can imagine during a big raintorm
how that would overwhelm the system. And when that happens, you get an overflow and they just dump the raw sewage out.
Goes right into right into the creek. So
give you an example of csos and and their effect on water quality. So a tale of two cities, Paris and Copenhagen. So
Paris, if you remember the Olympics over this over the summer, they uh the river sand was used to uh uh
for the opening ceremony and for the triathlon and marathon swimming events that these guys are jumping. Um, the
city has operated under a combined sewer system since the 1830s, back in the days of the Phantom.
Um, and despite the major infrastructure changes
that they tried to do before the Olympics, uh, concerns about the river’s
quality, particularly EOLI after rainfall, led to some events being postponed and concern and actually some
athletes got ill.
On the other hand, Copenhagen, and I’ve been to Copenhagen. Um, this is
uh in 95 they were sort of a similar situation. They had combined sewers and
they had 93 places where they knew of where where raw sewage was going directly into the Copenhagen Harbor and
adjacent areas. But they invested heavily in the uh fixing their sewer
system, the treatment They improved uh the quality because
they were able to take that water and store it um in an area where they could
hold it until they were able to treat it and we are doing something like that here. Tell you about um but today
Copenhagen has excellent water quality and I was here and this is hotel I stayed at and these are all people that
are like just sunbathing and swimming in the lake. So they have like in the little fenced off area where they can go
in. There’s little places they can go off. There’s diving places and this is it. This is a recreational place in the
middle of a major city. And I can tell you Oslo is like that also. It’s very
very interesting. But anyway, this is the hope that we could get to this point. Um so you have these sewage
relief tunnels and so basically they’re put in not to transport water. They’re just put in in order to hold the water.
They have these things that are probably 20 foot diameter boring devices that go
in and they re these tunnels. And I’ll show you the ones we have here how big they are. But um they go in and then
when you have a big storm event, the overflow instead of going in the rivers, they dump them into these tunnels and
then the sewage treatment plant can treat it, you know, in a more timely
manner. They don’t have to do it immediately. They can’t they can’t handle the amount of flow that they’re getting with. So they have to
do it slowly.
So, here we are at So, this is one of the tunnels that’s being drilled here. You can see how big the diameter of this
is a machine here that bores through it.
It’s kind of like a a dune worm going through the ground. Um, so this shows you how
big these things are. The west area tunnel, the storage 177
million gallons over eight miles trench 1.8 miles somewhere less storage
Nancy Creek 8 miles and exact storage is not known because it’s combined
with the west area tunnel so they’re not sure how much of this contributes to it in the south river tunnel 1.7 miles 10
million storage so these actually they’ve shown that they’ve actually helped the situation some
so leaving water quality. Now we’re moving to the future and how to meet the future
needs for metro Atlanta. So this is the slide we’re having to
reload, but uh this is basically the projected population growth for 15
counties surrounding Atlanta. Um see we’re like about 5.5 or so now and by
2050 we’ll be up like almost eight million people here. So you know take
your per capita 150 per person amount you can do some
projections and this is what the water use is projected to be the growth of that from
about 580 today let’s say and going up to 899
by 2050. So one thing as I was preparing this
talk I wasn’t really familiar with this um how much water that data centers use.
And I’ll give you my spiel here, but actually I’ll tell you what, you guys have a better spiel about this than I
have Amy put together. And um but it’s basically due to the the cooling demands
of the servers and um they use a ton of water. So they they’re projecting that a
place down in Kita County, it’s probably going to need about six million gallons of water a day.
to cool off those servers. Um, and the problem with this is, you know, we’re
right in the middle of this area, which is the water war, the interstate water. So, we have all these data centers come
up in here. This is all the Chatti here or the ACF. Well, you start adding
that much water use, what’s that going to do to the flows downstream? Are you going to raise again get Florida and
Alabama all upset because of what’s going on up here? So,
caution and warning for this is just projecting
future electrical demand but you figure there’s a correlation between that and what the water usage would be. So you
can see how that has grows over the years significantly for these data centers.
So, how do we get more water for Atlanta? Well, there’s water conservation and actually we’ve been
pretty successful with that. I’ll tell you about these toilets in a second. And then in the basin water transfer from
the Tennessee River, is that a possibility? So, let’s go back to our household water
use, you know, of the 150 gallons per person day we use, most of it’s from the
toilet. 26.7%
with lesser amounts for washers and shower faucet, but the toilet’s the
biggest. So, they established a toilet rebate
program and I actually took advantage. I don’t know if anybody else did, but you get a free toilet. If you live in metro Atlanta, you can
get a free toilet because it’s going to be a low flow toilet to replace what you have. You go to Home Depot and you fill
out a form and you’ll get So, um
we established in the mid 2000s. Um the Metro North Georgia water plan uh
district administers this guides the other utilities. Uh the old toilets used
to use about 3.5 gallons per flush, but these more modern models uh 1.28 and
even 1.1 gallons per flush. So, how much does that
So far they’ve replaced about 150,000 uh toilets and that saves at least 2.4
million gallons per day and 900 million gallons per year and it’s like a 48%
change by switching from the old to the new 48%.
So another solution I’m not sure how viable this is, but they they’ve talked about
grabbing the water from the Tennessee River. And Tennessee River is a monster river compared to Chattahuchi. It’s a
very big river. Um, and it’s only uh 2.5 miles away from the northern part of
Georgia near Chattanooga. That water would have to be pumped pipe over 100 miles. That may sound like a
lot, but think about places like, you know, Las Vegas and all these places out west in Phoenix and all that.
Los Angeles, how far they pump water. You know, all these. We have a a guest
here from Los Angeles. He knows all about this.
You’re probably surprised that we have these problems here.
So, um this just comparing the flow characteristics of the two rivers. So, average flow Tennessee 24 billion
gallons daily only 1.6 billion gallons from Chattahuchi. Pretty amazing.
So, one solution that was proposed a few years ago was to actually move the state
border because it’s claimed that surveyor I don’t know if he was a drunk surveyor, but he he didn’t put the right
uh state borderline. So, it’s it’s supposed to be following 35th parallel
launch to 35 degrees. Um, but surveyed it wrong and it’s it’s in the wrong
location. So, Georgia wants to shift that border so they can actually touch the river. So, if they shifted it to
that 35 degree, they’d actually be touching the city river. Um George actually passed a resolution
and established a house committee and I just found out that in this period of
madness in politics, they’ve actually re-uped that committee. So, um
Now, Tennessee, um, they kind of laugh it off. They don’t
believe that we’re serious. And of course, I contend if this ever happened, the cannons would come out.
So, just to summarize, uh, Metro Atlanta faces a variety of sewer issues, including competition for
supply, minimum flow requirements, and sewage bills. Lake provides most of the basin storage but only covers a small
part of the basin and water from Lake uh
is used to control weeds downstream from it. Uh they’ve
been a f the ACFAC have been focusing two decades of litigation between
Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Right now Georgia has won the Supreme
Court case and they are happy as can be about that.
But there’s still some things important. U some things related to the water control manuals.
Um we talked about the sewage overflow. Um you know they
are consent decrees on both cab and Atlanta to make sure that they are
working to improve the sewer system so that they’re not contaminating the
rivers and creeks. And one of the major ways they do that is through combined sewer overflow
relief tunnels. Um, of course, metro Atlanta’s growing
population is driving increased need for water. Um,
and data centers are going to be a factor that is going to be a big player in this. Um and potential solutions
include water conservation which is actually I can tell you the water conservation actually influenced
uh the court in their decision about not finding for Georgia rather than Florida.
They felt that Georgia was very proactive in trying to uh reduce their
usage by virtue of that toilet rebate program and that had an impact on what the
decision was and of course the uh moving to Tennessee state boundary.
So that’s that’s his story. Now I’ll just close it with if I come back if you get more people.
I’ll come back and do the groundwater conflict in Georgia which is uh saltwater tree intrusion along the
coast. Um the savannah river site is the contaminants that worry about those
contaminants coming into Georgia and then the agricultural pumping effects on the stream flow down in the southwest
okino swamp issue with the mining down there. So, uh,
thank you. And, uh, any questions?
Any questions for John?
Well, you know,
people once you got
Once the problem came to
Rep.
Okay. My question is he was investigating
legislate.
Yeah.
Well, you know, we talk about West and that’s crazy. I mean, you have
California Riverse
California
grandfather
California. Okay, sure.
You know that the Colorado River
is no
question. Oh no. Okay. Since you’ve been involved
in this thing, how do always
like what other ways people
like in the ACF they actually formed
and they all got together and they tried to work it out
came up with some of course legisl
United States.
Do you think United States?
They’re saying that
I guess
water. negotiate
treat. question.
I have not really seen anything.
I don’t know.
issues. I guess I’ll say something uh I’ll say
something in that. Okay. Uh data center issues. There’s too
many to go through and uh it’s it’s late and it’s Friday night. But uh I I feel I
um this is annoying. Um but we can always make more electricity.
Water’s a finite resource and so when these data centers are going into towns
um like first they think about the electricity and then they freak out
because they make this deal and then they go to the water utility and like you said it’s a very regulated right
like each town gets x number of mega gallons per day and like all the stuff
all the way down the rivers and then if a data center comes in and it’s going to take like
50% of that aotment like what happens? And so that’s really where these the
water issues are coming in on the data centers right now is the the public water works are like wait what? Um so
something’s got to get I guess is really because we’re not going to change the state line to the Tennessee. Um
so if that’s our long-term plan I’m very concerned like that that’s not the but
there is There is a a resource management like special committee right now in the general assembly and they are
looking exactly at that and and a legislator actually was like hey we’ve done a really good job at regulating
like and and sharing among crops cities and he’s like what we don’t have right
now because we never thought of doing it and what we need to do now is do the same sort of long-term planning around
industry and who gets like who gets water. So that’s what’s going to start happening
maybe.
You mentioned the Colorado River. Didn’t he screw Mexico over in the 194
deals with
I said
by the time we got
All right. Well, thank you, John. Really appreciate it. Thank you everybody for coming and uh yeah, we’ll see you at our
next event. We’re going to see you, John, at the next event. It’s going to happen.
Part II - Georgia's Groundwater: What Lies Beneath
Feb 26, 2025 – Georgia Science Junction.
Veteran USGS hydrologist John Clarke was back for round two of his history of Georgia’s complicated relationship with water – this time he focused on groundwater.
Clark’s talk dug into the geology and politics of Georgia’s groundwater conflicts. He walked through the saltwater intrusion battle between Georgia and South Carolina around Savannah and Hilton Head, where decades of heavy pumping (especially by paper mills like Union Camp) reversed the natural gradient and pulled saltwater into the aquifer — a problem that’s still expanding today and has cost Hilton Head over ten drinking water wells since 2000. He then connected this to the new Hyundai megaplant, which needs about 4 million gallons per day and is essentially doing “hydrologic gerrymandering” by siting wells across the county line to dodge pumping restrictions. Other stops on the tour included the Okefenokee Swamp and the threats posed by titanium mining along Trail Ridge (the Twin Pines project was just shut down via a $60 million conservation purchase, but Clark warned similar proposals will return), groundwater contamination concerns from the Savannah River Site nuclear facility, and the long-running Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint water war with Florida and Alabama.
A theme running through everything was how groundwater models — built from years of monitoring data — let scientists test “what if” scenarios, like what happens when International Paper shut down in September and pumping dropped by 24 million gallons a day, causing Savannah water levels to rebound over 24 feet. The Q&A touched on sea level rise worsening saltwater intrusion, the variability in how much one well can produce (anywhere from a couple gallons a minute for a Piedmont home to 11,000 gallons a minute for industrial use in Brunswick), and growing restrictions on public access to well data.
Check out the live stream
I just want to check and it’s working. Want to hear it for myself.
Uh is watching the stream. Don’t forget to start.
Hello
That great sound works.
Okay, we’re about to get started.
All right. Hi everybody. Um, thank you for coming. Um, we’re Science for
Georgia. Um, and welcome to Georgia Science Junction. Um, this came out of
Atlanta Science Tavern. Uh, as our work with, uh, some of the university has happened. We had to change the name to
something that was a little less alcohol related, but we still get to do some fun things. Um, we get to do talks like this
where we have scientists come out and talk to the public. We get to do uh community building uh skill building and
working with communities and we get to do science comedy. Uh in fact we have a science comedy show tomorrow night. Jazz
hands will be at Wild Heaven West End. Um that is going to be our newbie show.
So it is people who just went to scientists who just went through the training learn how to do standup about
their science. Um and it will be a great fun show. I think we might even sell out
soon. So this is going to be super fun. Um
Some of the stuff that we do specifically is try and get science out of the lab and into our communities. So
we train scientists how to do um public speaking and talk to the public, talk to legislators, talk to funders in ways
that’s understandable and gets their message across. Um we do a lot of outreach events for adults and college
level and even some high school stuff. Um and we’ll be doing some fun uh family
and kid events with Atlanta Science Festival. uh in the next couple weeks which starts on I think it’s March 7th
uh we’ll be doing the uh is it scoop of science so the physics of
ice cream and then uh the week later on the 15th we’ll be doing uh red wriggler
wrangling which is a vermiculture composting uh event where families will
actually leave with a compost unit to set up in their own homes and worms which will be fun Um, one of our big
events, my worms from last time. Yeah. So, one of our big events, uh, this year is going to be our fifth
environmental justice and climate protection conference. This will be in June at Georgia Tech. So, um, we’re
really excited about that. We have a lot of great partners and a lot of, uh, fun stuff already coming in. Uh, speaker,
uh, speaker applications has now closed, but we have still open for unposter and
youth session. who are trying to get like K through 12 coming out and talking about the science that they’re doing in their communities, important work
they’re doing to share that off with community members and other organizations. It’s all about building
coalitions to actually get something done. Um, and yeah, part of what we do
to help with that is we do data for Georgia. This is our data science branch where we are looking at GIS mapping,
data crunching, analytics, things of that sort to try to help organizations and Georgians find the way find the
ability to advocate about what’s going on in their communities in an effective way with their legislators or with um
their representatives in their local communities. Um so we’re arming people with the maps of what’s going on, where
things are happening, finding the information they need so they can do that effectively.
Um so thank you Emanuel’s uh for um hosting us. We always enjoy coming back
here. Um and now we’ll get ready for Clark and talking about Georgia water
wars our second part Georgia’s groundwater. Okay.
Thank you Patrick. Okay. So like I said, this is my second presentation to this
group and u the first covered the uh situation in Atlanta, the water wars in
Atlanta which mostly dealt with surface water where we had the Chattahuchi Flint
Appalachiccola River water war with Alabama and Florida and then
the uh sewer sewage problem that is both Atlanta and the So, we talk all about
that. Now, we’re going to move on to groundwater, which is really statewide. There’s issues. Uh, this first slide I
have up here, I love this picture because I happen to luckily be down in the Savannah area where I was involved
in in studies that involved the saltwater intrusion uh issue with with Hilton Head Island. And so, it basically
was a conflict between Georgia and South Carolina. And so this just so happens to be that the military is down there and
they’re doing an exercise on the on the banks or they’re doing a a ceremony or something on the banks of the Savannah
River and those cannons are pointing at South Carolina. So I thought that was the greatest photo. I didn’t have a
camera so I went and actually bought one of those disposable cameras in the store. So I said I cannot miss this
photo. So anyway, I love this photo.
So water, our most precious resource, lifeblood of the planet. Uh there’s
conflicts over the millennia, competition for its use, and Georgia is no exception.
It all begins with the water cycle where water comes down as precipitation, snow,
uh some of it runs off, goes into rivers. uh some is lost right back to
evaporation and transpiration of plants and then a small percentage actually
seeps into the ground and becomes part of the groundwater storage.
So just to put in perspective like how significant uh groundwater is um we look
at this the left uh pie chart here most of the earth’s water is is salt water
97% of the water is salt water and only 3% of the earth’s water is fresh water
it’s the freshest resource um now if we look at the fresh water how much of it
is uh where it’s held up the largest amount of fresh water is locked into ice
caps and glaciers. At least for now they are. I think they’re kind of it’s it’s
melting now. So it’s the ratios are changing here. But um and then only um
1% or so is in surface water of the freshwater resources and then 30% is in
uh groundwater. So in Georgia, uh this is sort of a
sketch of the geology of Georgia. You know, the northern half of Georgia is the uh Pedmont, uh Blue Ridge and Valley
Ridge. And these are uh you know, crystallin rocks is large part of that.
Not very great water barrier when it comes to groundwater. But the coastal plane is a bunch of different layers of
of sand and clay and limestone and and those different layers together form a
whole system of aquifers and confinings that restrict the flow of water. So u
the crosssection there shows um
so it just shows how the sediments thicken from an area which is called the
fall line. I guess this doesn’t show up on the on the screen, but anyway, the fall line is this line that cuts the
state in half. And that’s basically the difference separation between the coastal plane and the Pedmont. And uh
from that point that and so at one point in geologic history, the ocean was that far up and deposited all these
sediments. Okay? And then over time the ocean recedes left behind all of the
different sediments and all that are in the coastal plane and they get thicker as you move toward the ocean.
Um again I said the uh North Georgia mostly
the water is going to be in this crystallin rock like the grrenitic rocks and it only occurs in the cracks in the
rock. So it’s there’s a lot less of it here. It’s more skill of trying to find it. Uh but in the coastal part you have
very porous aquifers like you know sandstone, sand and you have limestone.
These are good water bearing uh units.
uh comparing the major aquifers of water reservoirs um the Florida system most productive
aquifers in the whole world and uh you know it it uses significantly more water
than uh than down in the uh or up in the uh Pedmont where the crystallin aquifers
are. which compare at one time there was 800 million 800 million gallons per day
used in the Florida and only 64 million gallons per day used in the crystal.
So this is a question. Uh how many of you think that all artisian wells flow?
All artisian wells. You think they do? Okay. So these are some wells that are
located in the coastal plane. Um this uh the one on the right is actually right
near the coast of Georgia and that was probably back in like the 19 the 40s maybe where the water was coming
up like that. Um the one on the left is one that’s in the uh Savannah River
Valley and uh the other one is in the coastal area in the middle is in the coastal
area. So all that means when you say artisian just means it’s under pressure.
So it means that the water level will rise above the top of the aquifer. So if
the land surface is low enough and the artisian pressure is above land surface then you have a flowing well. But if
it’s not um above land surface, the water level will be underground. And
this sketch here shows where you see a flowing well where the the earth has been cut away, eroded away, and and the
the head is above land surface of flows. And if you think about it, this like the water tower showed in this here. It’s
just like a water system. So we where they put a a uh they typically put in
the water tower in the highest part of the area that you’re in. and they want it on the hill because that will provide
the pressure head that will feed all the plumbing in the area. And it’s the same
notion here. We have the recharge where the water enters the ground is at a higher elevation and then it flows down
gradient from there downhill.
Now groundwater can be very old. So when it the time it takes to flow from that
recharge area, it could be very short if you’re in a unconfined water table
aquifer. Okay? But it can be very long if it gets penetrates deep underground
and it can actually take thousands of years. In some of the studies that I’ve been involved with, we’ve uh age water
that’s like 30,000 years old. People in Savannah are drinking water that’s that old. Okay.
So, what are the conflicts in Georgia? So, we have an issue with saltwater intrusion, which is a battle between
Georgia and South Carolina. Uh, and everybody here, I’m sure, knows all about the Okie Finoi swamp issue, but
I’m going to I’m going to talk about that just a little bit because, uh, you know, other mines could come along and
have the same exact issues. Um the Savannah River site, a nuclear facility
in South Carolina, uh has extensive groundwater contamination. There was concern about that water crossing into
Georgia. And then uh the effect of agricultural pumping uh in the uh Appalachiccola,
Chattahuchi, Flint basin. We did talk about that a little bit during surface water talk, but surface water and
groundwater are interrelated. So that’s why we’re going to cover it here today.
So there’s the locations of where everything is in the top there. You see the Savannah Riverside right on the
border with Georgia and exact right across the river from Plant Bog. So
that’s where we put all our nukes is right in that area. Um then you have Savannah and Hilton Head on the coast.
Uh you have the Oki Finoi way down the south there uh on the border with
Florida. So saltwater contamination has been a problem actually for quite a long time
now. So go back to 1885, the first well was put in at Savannah. Uh and then in
the 1880s, 1890s in Buford uh County and South Carolina and Paris Island, uh
wells were put in. Uh and 1903, as early as 1903, wells experienced saltwater
contamination at Paris Island. They actually were abandoned back in 1903. Uh, moving on in time, 1937, Union
County, giant paper company was installed at Savannah, pumping a lot of water. Um,
1946, the well in Buford County was abandoned due to the saltwater contamination.
1976, Hilted Head begins to see the saltwater contamination problem. Uh,
it’s the chloride. It’s it’s when they get above 250 mg per liter, that’s the
recommended drinking water standard. When they get above that, that’s when people really get concerned. Uh 2023,
the area of saltwater contamination continues to expand.
So, this is a map showing the area of the chloride contamination, the left being a more regional size map. So, you
can kind of see how it compares to the to the whole area. That’s that’s the size of the plumes there. Uh the right
is is a zoom in of showing the uh extent of the contamination in that area.
So as ear as recent as uh 2023 u the
Hilton Head uh public service district service the water supply there was forced to take another well out of
production. uh has lost over 10 drinking water wells uh since the year 2000
and uh only two of the utilities remaining uh four Florida wells are are
unaffected by the saltwater intrusion.
So geology contributes to the problem. Okay. Okay. So, what basically has happened is when you uh in the
southoutheastern part of Georgia like around Brunswick, the the aquafer sediments are very deep and thick.
They’re very deeply buried. But as you move up towards Savannah and Hill, there’s upwelling or up arching of the
rock. It’s called the Butford Arch. Okay? And it’s forced the units to be at
a shallower depth. At the same time during the low stands of the ocean like
during some of the more significant ice ages when the uh water level uh was
dropped down the ocean level was dropped down because the the um Arctic and Antarctic uh glaciers captured a lot of
the water and so therefore the ocean as much water in it and so there was extensive down cutting of the rivers
when that happened. Okay, this is you know this is over millennia when this is going on but it cuts down the river cuts
deeper when the sea level is deeper. Okay, and so at that point the river
actually in size into the aqua. So before it had a protective clay cap on
top of it that protected it from receiving the salt water but when the uh
rivers had cut through it was a direct pathway uh to the aquifer and it’s and
in today’s issues you you hear about the Savannah Harbor deepening that make have
these giant ships come in that was the concern there was the dredging was going to actually dredge away that overlying
clay protective layer. on top of the aquifer and then let the salt come in. So that’s what the issue was there.
So before pumping began, you had very high pressure heads in the aquifer. And
so uh at Savannah, you actually had water levels that would rise to 30 feet
above land surface. So you could actually supply your plumbing by a flowing well. You know, it would actually go up to the, you know, the
fourthstory building or whatever that rise to. Um and at that point then the
water flew uh flowed toward uh Hilton Head Island and actually discharged into
the Port Royal Sound there, you know, through these breaches that were in the the top of the Octa. And they have
stories of actually old sailing ships would replenish their freshwater supply
by finding these areas of upwelling that in the uh the Port Royal Sound. They
would just get their buckets down there and there’d be fresh water coming up from the aquafer there.
So then after pumping started all this situation reversed so that the gradient
reversed from going toward Hilton Head to going going uh uh towards Sam. So uh
you can see that here. So the water level u has dropped below sea level in
the aquifer which mean the gradient is from the ocean toward the aquifer. Okay and that’s what we’re showing here and
that’s the critical thing is when does the water level fall below sea level. So you can force this reverse gradient.
So this is these are a couple monitor wells that are at hill island. uh the
water level uh you know you see the water level label there and the water
level dropped below sea level in like the late 1970s.
The other graph is a specific conductance which is a uh indicator of
chlorides in the water. Okay, it’s more conductive when you have a solute like
that in the water. So that we use that as a uh indicator. So you see right at
that point where the water level dropped below sea level then it goes up. It just rises just like that. So
okay. So what’s going on is you have this large area of pumping at Savannah
and a lot of it was the paper companies and all that were in that area and they form what’s called a cone of depression
and it’s it really it’s like a funnel very much like a funnel. So you got the low point is where the well is pumping
and then the water level uh gets gradually shallow but shallower as you move away from that center. And this
cone of depression actually intercepted Hilton Head Island.
So actually there’s two cone of depressions there. So you have the Savannah one and then locally you have
Hilton Head has has begun pumping. And um these two are about 22 mi apart.
Um so there’s a little bit of lane to share here. So you got both both places
are contributing to the problem.
If you look at the pumping history, we’re moving along here with pretty pretty low pumping until 1937 when that
Union Camp paper mill was put in at Savannah. Um, Savannah pumping peaked at 85
million gallons per day in the year 1980 and then it’s come down ever since. Um,
and then at Hilton Head they peaked in 1997 at their highest level and their
usage is coming down also. So I was part of this study was it was
called the coastal sound science initiative which was uh commissioned by the EPD
with the state state funds uh USGS and and scientists from EPD work together uh
better understand how and where the saltwater is entering the aquifer um and then using groundwater models as
um tools to try and see how things are
forming and also to predict what the effects of certain pumping scenarios might be on uh the saltwater
contamination. Um we also established a groundwater monitoring network extens extensive
network and then we looked at possible alternative freshwater sources to using the upper
water and aquifer. So, groundwater models are basically uh
a tool that uses mathematical equations and computers to simulate uh groundwater
flow and quality. And groundwater models were actually used as part of the uh study down at the
Oki Finoi. Okay. I know that the consultant the the u the mining company
hired a consultant that ran some uh groundwater models for them. Um these models can be used to test what
if scenarios. What if we change the pumping in this manner? Uh would that
stop the saltwater contamination? Would it reverse the contamination problem? Um
and the thing about it is it’s limited by the uh accuracy of the data used to create the model. And that’s what a lot
of people were complaining about the open Finoi situation. They were claiming that the the model was not reliable.
That was the opinion of some of the scientists that looked at it.
So this is just a uh a summary of some of the model simulations that we did and
it shows here the relative contribution of pumping to the draw down in a
location. So Hilton Head Island on the right, Savannah on the left. So a Hilted
Head, the pumping there, local pumping has more of an effect on water levels
there than the pumping in Savannah, which is just sort of a common sense conclusion, right? We’re nearby should
have more effect than something 22 miles away. Uh 25% of the effect there is from
Savannah. Uh and then Savannah, 87% of of their
draw down occurs because of pumping air and 12% is actually regional pumping,
which means it’s all throughout the whole area, all the different wells that cover the whole coastal area contribute
to that. Uh, another way that you look at this is that basically for every
10 gallons of pumping at Savannah, you get the same result by pumping one gallon at Hilton Head. Okay,
so this is a simulated uh simulated saltwater contamination map and the dash
line there shows what the actual extent of the 250 mg per liter chloride line
is. And uh so this is what would have what would happen if you turned off the
pumps at Hilton Head. Okay. So see how it’s retreated from the dash line. Okay.
So, you still have the Savannah pumping going on, but uh you’ve you’ve turned
off the Hilton Head pumping and and you still have a plume resulting from that pump. Now, if we go here to the next
one. So, we’ve turned off the Savannah pumps in this situation. Okay. And see
that the plumes have receded even more. Okay.
This is a map showing the difference between just totally shutting pumps off.
So the blue line there is showing, you know, what the actual extent was in the
year 2000. And the green line shows where it would be in the year 2100 if
you just turned off all the pumps. It doesn’t see it stays there for a long time. It takes a very long time to flush
out and dilute what has been brought in.
So, South Carolina’s implemented some conservation measures. Several of the
counties declared a capacity use area where they did not allow increases in
pumping. Um, on Hilton Head Island, they actually implemented very innovative
alternative sources of water, including one very deep aquifer well that went
3,800 ft. And that actually contains saline water. Water that was not from
the current ocean, but water that was trapped there from back when the rock was actually first deposited when it was
in ocean sediment. Um, and that water actually I know that that
water was very hot because there’s a you know geothermal grading temperatures increased deeper in the earth and this
water was very warm. I used Aro treatment. I think you guys said you
used Roro in your house, right? So, uh, this is, you know, a monster system
where they have, you know, pressures that they’re trying to treat it with. Um,
let’s see. Then the Savannah River is the other source. They made a pipeline from the Savannah River. Um, and then
golf courses are using um treated uh wastewater ethine. you know that’s
common commonly used in some areas that are water stressed.
The other thing that they did there was pretty innovative is called aquifer storage and recovery which is where they
inject fresh water into the aquifer during periods of of plenty. So it’s
during the seasons when they really don’t need the water like in the winter let’s say they take the water pump it in
the ground and it creates this bubble in the aquifer that they can come back and get in the summer when they when they
want to uh they need the water for their increased demand.
Georgia developed a management plan too. They had the different areas in which they um uh where they were implementing
uh water conservation and and reuse measures. They were implementing reductions in pumping. Uh encouraging
the use of alternate water supplies including the Savannah River and alternative aquifers
and uh groundwater monitoring was a big part of this to keep an eye on the situation. Now you can see that there’s
different colors. The red zone is the most restrictive zone. and that’s Chattam County and there just no
additional withdrawals uh permitted and they actually have a schedule for reducing pumping there. Um they als
that’s also the case in Brian and Liberty counties. Those counties are less restrictive than
in Chadam. So this is the red zone. This is the
Chadam County. So the scheduled reductions you see they’re going you know we the highest was what I said 80
80 mgd um and it’s reducing down and down and
down uh by 2025 they wanted to have 45 million gallons per day which was the
approximate pumping that was way back in the 1950s now they beat that target by virtue of
the IP shutdown which I’m going to show that in a
So this is the one of the monitoring wells that we were lucky to have that went way back to the 1950s. And you can
see over over time how the water levels dropped as they increased the company with the you know with the paper mills
coming online and everything. Uh the lowest it ever got was 120 ft below sea level.
And then since then with all these water conservation measures and reductions
they’ve actually risen over 77 ft and now they’re above the levels that they were back in 1954.
So now we move on to the Hyundai plant. And you may have heard this in the news.
Um giant plant. I drove by this the other day. It was just unbelievable. I
mean, it just takes up acres and acres. I mean, it must be like square miles big. It’s just incredible. Um,
but you know, it’s designed to produce over 500,000 vehicles,
giving thousands of new jobs. It requires about 4 million gallons per day for manufacturing processes.
And there’s additional water needs because of the population influx of people that are going that are working at the plant.
So where do where do they get this water? They’re in that restricted area.
Um so to avoid the uh restriction I call a little bit of hydraologic
gerrymandering and they basically have arranged to put the wells across the
border into a different county where they don’t have the restrictions. And so
they’ve got uh proposed four wells that will be in Bulock County. Uh there’s
going to be two different permits. One is going to be a Bullet County permit and one is going to be a Brian County
permit which somehow they’re allowed to get a well permit for a well outside of their county. Okay, it’s interesting.
But that’s showing the relative locations of where these things are.
So there’s concerns about these wells like the farmers, the people that have private wells and that are worried
there’s going to be a lot of draw down. It’s going to dry their wells up and everything. So the uh EPD has proposed
that they create a uh joint municipal managed fund to address the impacts on
these wells, which basically means they’re going to give money to people to deepen their wells or lower their pumps
in response to whatever happens. So they’re going to give them money where they’ll be able to maintain a water
supply. Um it’s supposed to be the last uh 10
years. Um it calls for limiting pumping at the um
Hyundai plant or these that will supply the Hyundai plant to 15 years. Um and
they want them to develop alternative sources such as a reservoir to go to the
Savannah or not reservoir but a pipeline to the Savannah River. Um
and let’s see. So they they just found out that the state’s 2025 budget
uh 500 million was designated for um to
to help build a surface water treatment plant in Effingham County that would uh
supply this water. One thing to be aware of is that, you know, to go Savannah River, not, you
know, the the the uh environmental effects of pumping the Savannah River might be worse than what you’re worried
about with the groundwater because, you know, you’re you’re you’re pumping water out of there. You’re bringing the salt water is going to move further up river
because you’re pumping out of it, taking the fresh water away, and therefore you’re going to be affecting the the
ecology of those areas because you’re doing that.
Okay. So, another source. So, in the middle of all this going on, well, IP
decides to call it quits, international paper, um, and they went out of
business, um, back in September and reduced their pumping, pumping 24
million gallons a day. That’s a lot of water. Um, and that reduction resulted
in a water level rise of over 24 feet in Savannah. Look, look at that graph
again. um levels unseen since the early 50s,
changing the groundwater situation throughout the area. Um
so this is lower than the limits that they established in the negotiations with South Carolina. Okay. They they
said we’ll reduce it down what they it was like 45 million gallons per day. So now they’re down, you know, to 26
million gallons a day or something like that. So they have this surplus surplus of water
and that could be used to provide water to Hyundai. I would not have to go through this hydraologic gerrymandering
jumping over the county border to supply the water. So that’s a possibility. I’ve actually uh talked to uh people at USGS
where I used to work and and suggested to them that they approach EPD to come out and and try to relook at the whole
situation down there based on this pumping change like what what is the effect on everything down there because
you you’ve changed things so much by changing the pumping like that you have you changed the salt water problem at
Hilton Head because of that and they need to go out and do a regional map to look at these you know salt water look
at water levels and just see what’s happening. So, I’m hoping they’ll be able to get that going with the uh EP.
So, here we are. Here’s the uh the dramatic rise in water levels that
occurred once that uh well was shut down.
I’m sorry. Well, the pumping was shut down. So this is what I was just talking
about. The groundwater models that we originally established back in the science initiative and that the EPD is
continue to modify um need to be dusted off, brought back out and have this
information uh evaluated. And not only just the models, but I like I said, you
need to go out and collect data so that you can make maps that would be something you could compare to the
models.
So now moving down to a area that’s near and dear to everybody in this organization’s heart I’m sure Oki Finoi
swamp you know everybody knows it’s you know incredible
natural uh wonder backwater swamp in North America
uh Okino Pinoi wildlife refuge um
designated na national natural landmark uh and it’s actually on the process of
trying to become a UNESCO world heritage site.
So Trail Ridge is the key key thing down there and that’s where the uh heavy
metals the titanium is located is it’s contained in there. There’s a lot of
interest from the mining companies to get into that and and mine that titanium. Uh this is an old uh beach complex.
It’s formed at part of the inland sand dunes when the when the sea was sea
level was higher. Um and it acts as a hydraologic divide that separates the
Oki Finoi uh to the west to the St. Mary’s River to the east.
Um I mentioned the titanium.
So back in 2019, the process began with Twin Pines submitting its application to
develop the mine. It was challenged and delayed over environmental concerns
uh including effects on hydrarology and natural habitats for many years. Uh
finally in 2025, the conservation fund purchased the acres uh near the swamp,
basically shutting down the operation. um $60 million purchase.
And uh the thing is this is I don’t think this is the end of the story. I think that there’s potential for more of
these things to be developed. So I kind of want to show you what um some of the
hydraologic concerns are related to groundwater. The main issues and these are things you’d want to look at as a a
new mine might be proposed. It’s going to probably be very similar issues.
So the you know the mining procedure was to use a mobile drag mine, excavate the
sand, separate out the heavy minerals from it. Um
they would be moved to on-site processing facilities. Um
then about 98% of that is going to be returned to the mine. It’s sort of a march. It’s sort of a marching thing. If
they’ll advance a certain number of feet, process that stuff, back fill, move another certain number of feet,
process, back fill. Just keep moving that way. And it’s supposed to be like an 11year project. Um,
this is a it’ll advance approximately 100 ft per day. Um
so the concerns you know each side of the debate provided arguments regarding whether the
swamp will be affected or not. Um science and engineering community
combine composed and signed a letter about the most likely effects of the mine.
These again these concerns would apply to any mining operation that comes into
the area and then so what are the main concerns that relate to groundwater?
So the first is you know when they dig up the ridge they dig up the u ridge and
they process these sands there’s concern that what they put back there will be more permeable than what they took out.
Okay. So, it’s a, you know, it’s a mix of sand and clays that they’re taking out. And
if you were to put back stuff that’s more permeable, let’s say, consider that if you had um,
you know, a pile of sand and you poured a bucket of water on that. Well, that’s
pile of sand is not going to hold that water. It’s going to seep in immediately and go to a lower depth. If you have
clays on the other hand, those are going to inhibit the infiltration of water. So
it will hold the water level higher. So the water table depth would change. It
wouldn’t be if it if it does indeed become more permeable. And of course there is arguments about whether or not
that would really happen. But if it if it was to become more permeable, then it would not hold the water table as high
or drop it. And so therefore, you would lose that gradient that part of that
water was flowing toward the swamp and keeping the swamp wet, you know, when when you need to. Um,
so that’s the concern. So the two graphs or the two maps show um the top is where you have a full groundwater divide, a
nice hill if you will, and then when you put it back, sediments, if they are more
permeable, it’s going to lower that water table. It’s going to lower the hill upon which the water flows from
toward the swamp. Then the other concern was that the
processed water was going to be from the upper Florida aquifer
and that it would increase the downward leakage of water from the swamp.
And um I guess they’re permitted to have they were going to be permitted at 1.4
MGD uh that was projected to lower the water
level as much as 9 ft. uh below the swamp and to remain about a
foot lower a year after the pumping stops. So right now there’s apparently a
downward gradient there, a downward gradient where the water wants to flow downward into the deeper aquifers
and u so they’re worried that by adding this pumping they’re going to increase that and bring more down. There’s
actually this um paper that was recently uh put out by some University of Georgia
professors um talk about this and they’re actually doing the presentation tomorrow
at noon. Uh it’s going to be a Zoom thing and we were interested in that.
I’ll see if I can get you the information on how to hook into that. But um they were going to talk about it’s basically uh geochemical evidence
that the water from the swamp is penetrating into the deeper aquifers.
So now we’re moving river from Savannah to the Savannah Riverside. Uh it’s n
it’s manufactured nuclear materials for national defense since the early 50s.
uh in 1991 it was South Carolina’s largest employer. It also employed a
significant amount of Georgians. The number has dwindled over the years uh
down to about 11,000 in 2022. Uh a variety of hazardous materials
which are either nuclear or just byproducts of the processing material
that’s used to process the uh the nuclear materials is left behind. And
there’s contamination throughout the site. Interesting thing about this site is I’
I’ve been down there, driven through it. Um, you know, when they came in in the 1950s during the Cold War, it was like,
you know, we need this, get out. You know, they so they actually had towns, the town of Ellington was abandoned.
People moved away. And you see, you’ll drive through the through the site, you’ll see like driveways to nowhere.
like they just picked the houses up and moved them to a place called New Edmonton which is sort of like right off
the campus there. But it’s kind of interesting to see this little ghost town of driveways to nowhere.
So the groundwater contamination uh the Savannah River is a line down to
the south to the to the bottom left um and S Riverside outline up there and
there’s groundwater throughout the area could be volatile organics. It could be heavy metals tridium among other things.
So what set this all off? Okay, back in uh 1988, uh tridium was initially
detected in groundwater in Bur County, Georgia. Uh 91,
uh it was actually detected in groundwater samples from a deep public supply well. And that really raised the
alarm when they saw that. They said, “Well, how is this?” You know, they may have postulated that was coming by the
rainfall. Um, but how could it get into a deep possible place? It was the alarm
and so could that be from the waste disposal on Riverside.
So the politics involved uh back in ’92
uh the restart of the K reactor there resulted in leak a leak of of 150
gallons of radioactive water um into the Savannah River and um they had to uh
shut down water plants along the Savannah River and uh and close the oyster beds in Georgia and South
Carolina because of concern about sort of like our Flint River
jet fuel spill not that long ago. Um so Governor Campbell
uh a Republican firm supporter of the plant. Zel Miller a Democrat uh
consistent opponent plant opponent of plants that restarted building new reactors unless uh emissions were
reduced and the air and water uh was cleaned up.
So studies again I was involved in these studies. This is the uh uh the first is a Georgia EPD study that looked at the
tridium uh focusing on the shallow groundwater. Um and then the other study was called
the USGS trans river flow study which is where we focused on the deeper groundwater flow and the interstate uh
movement of water. Um we had a first phase where we did extensive data
collection ended up with a groundwater model. Um, we had a phase two where we
took that model and we evaluated what would happen if there were pumping changes around that area like you know
what if pump what if I went out of business and just shut shut everything
down that was a big question what would that do it just all stuff just fall right into Georgia at that point um and
then finally there was another study which was the plant mobile expansion of those two new reactors they were going
to increase their pumping. So we wanted to know would that increased pumping induce the flow to come over into
Georgia from the Savannah Riverside. So tridium it is a uh occurs naturally
um in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays strike atmospheric gases.
It can also be produced by man and it can happen during nuclear explosions and
it can happen in reactors intended to produce uranium for uh to produce
nuclear weapons and to uh produce electricity. And I’m old enough that I can remember back when the they had the
atmospheric testing um which was during the Cold War widespread blowing up bombs all over the
place and they and the the rain was contaminated with stuff. They told us the kids you like to eat snow as a kid
up in the north never you could never eat the snow. They said they would always have that the possibility that
was in it. Um so tridium I like so I guess that
tridium was dispersed through the earth through the world um from the mid50s to
the early 60s because of those nuclear tests. Um
and that that peak peaked around 1963 and has been decreasing ever since you
know as the half life of trineium is like 13 years and so it decays each 13
as half the material disappears over that period. Uh the drinking water standing standard
is 20,000 pico curies per liter.
So this is just showing how the atmospheric releases occurred at Savannah Riverside because they were
there making tridium and u they would have their reactors would sometimes have
accidents and they would uh discharge into the atmosphere. So you can see how much it was in the beginning 1958 and
then it dissipated over the years and u you can see this was through 1993
I guess how much it came down.
So this is a map showing the uh contour map showing the trinium in rainfall.
Okay, rainfall distribution of you can see it’s a little microclimate down there uh higher concentrations as you
get over the riverside and then uh progressively lower but it’s all going into Georgia
County. Okay. Um so the state had their study of the
shallow aquifers and their major major conclusion was that it’s there is
widespread contamination of the shallow water table aquifer in Burke County uh
but the levels were below drinking water standards um and they concluded it was
coming from the rainfall but the confined aquifer remained the
question. So they could explain it being in the water table from the rainfall,
but how could they explain it being in a confined aquifer that was cut off from the rainfall?
So, interestingly enough, I went and visited this site um where
this well this has occurred and I think I did this after the study was over and
I came upon it and this well here is a very poorly constructed well and it
looks like it’s uh really doesn’t have any casing which is like cement that they surround the pipe
that they put in the ground. So basically, it’s a conduit for surface runoff to come and get into the
groundwater. And I, you know, I guess I assumed that whoever was alarmed about
this realized that that was the case, but apparently not. So um anyway, we
went several millions of dollars later,
we came up with our study conclusions. So uh again the geology controls the
flow around the Savannah the Savannah River. Um what happens is just like in
that Port Royal Sound as the river down cuts it cut through the confining layer
clays that protect the aquifer and when it does that it creates a a hole that
where the water wants to flow to.
This is showing it in a cross-section and basically the uh the water is trying
to get into the areas where the top confining layer has been cut off.
So now the river is very it’s like it’s like 8 miles wide and it’s been cut over
geologic time very significantly.
This is a simulated uh cross-section on the right, a map on the left showing we
basically said, well, is any of this water coming from the Savannah Riverside? You know, is any of the water
reaching the river on the Georgia side coming from here? And so we did these
what’s called particle tracking where you track how the water moves from the recharge to the uh discharge area. And
here we talked about how old water, groundwater could be. So along here we the oldest flow path we had here was 820
years and the youngest was like 90 years. Okay. So um there really wasn’t
anything that was of much concern from these flow paths and none of them were actually hitting where the um the waist
sites were. They weren’t really below the waist sites.
So the conclusion was that water ground water can get into the Savannah River
Valley. It can come from either Georgia or South Carolina. It can cross beneath the river. Um
and then again the time of travel it’s long and uh the on the uh
from the recharge areas to where it discharges into river it’s as much as 5,000 31,000 years
very very old water so it’s kind of beyond the point where you would worry about intersecting the Santa River sites
problem. Uh let’s see.
So we did these predictive scenarios where we looked at what would happen uh under certain things. That’s one of the
beauties of a model is you can do these tests to see what might happen. Um so if
all the Savannah River site was to shut down um there would just be a a uh
slight u decrease in the time of travel for the water. Okay. Just be a slight
difference. Uh and then once we started plant pumping plant boal
um the water that that those wells are getting are mostly from Georgia uh around 30 miles away is where it
originates and at the time it travel as high as 3,800 m. Um and none of that
water came from the uh Savannah River site.
So now moving westward to the uh Appalach Chattahuchi Flint area which we
did talk about in the previous presentation. Um it’s an area where there’s been
intensive competition for the available supply. Uh it’s been in the courts since the 1990s. The the issue between the the
three states um these rivers provide habitats for endangered species. There’s
endangered muscle species throughout the Flint River basin. Uh, and you affect the flows of the
river. Dry it up, you can affect the habitats of those muscles. Um, in
Georgia, it’s the principal water supply for uh, people in metro Atlanta. This is a dated line. It says 6% 6 million is
where are we up to now? 8 million something like that. It’s a lot of people. A lot of people here. Um
it provides flow for sewage disposal and um it’s the principal uh water
supply for irrigation in the Flint River Basin. Um
and then let’s see, of course, the Appalacha Bay uh needs to have a certain
salinity of water in order to optimize oyster production. And their and their
claim has been that um that the overping of the aquifer has um or not the aquifer
the river has um reduced the freshwater flows into the bay and therefore the
salinity has changed and negatively affected the oysters.
So this is just looking at some of the along the the basin there. That’s the basin of the Chattahuchi and Clinton um
and the major uses of the water. So the northern part where we are public supply
and sewage disposal are the main uh main uses of the river. Uh as we get in the
central area there we have a lot of use for irrigation purposes. Um there is an
endangered species issue in that lower part of the basin and of course you have the commercial fishing the Appalachic
Cola Bay to the south. So the groundwater part of this is that
is the Flint River basically and that’s where the Florida aquifer uh is used as
a source of water for irrigation and um
it’s a car aquifer which means has large taverns in it and it’s very much interconnected to the river to the Flint
River. Um so during natural conditions the top uh cross-section shows the water
basically flows and discharges into the river. But with pumping as you pump you
begin to diminish the amount of water that discharges into the river. And then with extensive pumping you actually can
reverse the flow and have the river become a source of water to the well.
So, this is just showing uh some of the irrigation uh down in that area. If you
look in the the top half of this photo, you’ll see all these circular patterns
on the ground. Those are these center pivot irrigation systems that basically make a circle, a crop circle. And you
can spot these when you’re flying over all over the country. You can see these things. So, there’s thousands and
thousands of these down there. This is a map showing just how many uh
withdrawal points there are for irrigation down there. And u 73% of this
is for is groundwater direct groundwater pumping. Uh 27% is pumping right out of
the river. Um and most of this pumping occurs like between April and September.
And you can have incredible amounts of water taken out during those periods. 24
thou 2400 million gallons per day which is a very large amount of water.
Uh getting back to models. This is a a model simulation by Jones where he
looked at um the effect of the pumping on the stream flow.
Hot colors indicate areas where pumping most affects the stream flow.
So you can see that basically you’re straddling the river. The closer to the river, the hotter the color is going to be and the more impact on the river
flow. And so these results helped guide EPD and their withdrawal permitting
decisions about wells in the area.
So basically the status of the uh ACF water war um back in 2014 Florida sued
Georgia and the Supreme Court and um they asked
the Supreme Court for an equitable aortionment of the waters of the ACF and they wanted to restrict Georgia’s water
use to 1992. 2 levels. This is in 2014 and I I don’t think we’d be able to
survive in Atlanta if that was if that was to happen. So, you would probably see the Georgia militia on the border if
that if that came about. Um, but in 2021, the Supreme Court denied Florida’s
request, dismissed the complaint, saying that Florida has failed to prove that George’s water use had caused the
decline in Appalachiccola Bay or harmed the species in Florida.
And the uh part of the operation of the Chattahuchi River is the controlling the
dams. So u what the core of engineers runs the dams and they have what’s
called a master water control manual that that sort of sets the rules for how they release water from the dam to meet
needs downstream. And uh basically uh
this uh was adapted and it was uh in April of 2017
um Alabama and several organizations uh filed a lawsuit against the court.
However, that’s nothing’s gone for happened with that. The appeal still happening and they’ve been operating
under these rules since 2017.
So, but now move on to the future. What are some of the future issues that might
happen here? So, we have fracking trying to get more gas out of your rock
in the northwest part of the state in the Valley and Ridge. Um, aquaer storage
and recovery, which is what we talked about at Hilton Head. Uh they’ve actually had a couple of uh pilot
research projects on that in Georgia, but none of those have shown u much promise at this point. Um the
possibility of developing saltwater aquifers, which means you’re pumping these really deep ones like the Hilton
Headwell is 3,800 ft, pumping these really deep aquifers and then desalinating them to use as a water
supply. And then carbon sequestration, which is the uh what what do you do with
all the uh you know the carbon emissions um that you’re doing and you know if you
have a coal plant and you have this going to atmosphere what can is there some way you can remediate that? This is
talking about actually pumping that into deep geologic reservoirs
and there have been some exploratory borings made in Georgia uh to look into
that actually and a lot of this stuff is dependent on the economy. So like the frack like
right now the price of energy is is low. I mean you know oil and the like. So
they’re not going to do any exploration, right? It’s just not it doesn’t pay them to do it. It’s so uh it’s when prices
get high is when they go out and they actually do the exploratory drilling and
and do things like tracking. So I I don’t right now it’s not a concern. But these are the things that could be
coming down the road in in Georgia. So u I think that’s it. So, uh, take any
questions and I don’t know if anybody online would have a a text in a question or anything.
I have a quick question. Um,
yeah. Um, there’s obviously problems with salt
water in rivers over the river. Are you aware of
any like eological damage from salt water
intruding from an aquifer like area where it is contaminating aerausing
impacts to ecos or is that mostly that’s mostly that’s in Georgia that
would be mostly a deep deeper water situation. Yeah.
Would you repeat the question into the microphone? So the uh question was about
whether pumping groundwater pumping uh that might cause saltwater intrusion if
that might affect a uh ecological system like by
excuse me a non-estary system like it’s not salt water going further up. It’s it’s finding a way up somewhere else.
Yeah. because you’re lowering the water levels. Typically, it’s going to reduce the discharge upward. So, it’s going to
be pulling laterally as opposed to vertically. Okay. So,
which is sort of like the the the oki fininoi swamp thing. It’s like, you know, it’s pulling the water down from
above rather than having it go up, you know. So, yes.
Um, so for the Hyundai plant, water usage. Are they putting any of that
water back after they use it or is it being evaporated into the atmosphere
there? I’m sure it’s got to be It’s not a It’s not like a cooling process. It’s going to be a manufacturing process. So,
there’s going to be waste water and the question is where is that waste water going to go? And I don’t it might go
into uh what’s in that river there. Um,
I can’t think of the name. There’s there’s a river that’s in that county that maybe they discharge it to that and that would end up into the ocean near
Savannah. Oh, so it won’t go through any processing or anything. I would hope it would some sort of Yeah,
I’m sure there’s some sort of treatment that it would go through once they do that. Yeah.
We have an online question. Uh from the chat online, we’ve got how
many people does a groundwater well typically serve or how many acres?
That’s very variable. I mean, uh you know, you could have a domestic well, it’s just for serving the family that’s
in that house. You know, one well, one family. Um, but you could have like the
city of Savannah has a like maybe it might have 20 wells that serve, you know, a uh, you know, million people or
whatever, you know, it’s so it kind of depends on the population. Uh, and then
the agricultural um, these wells can be really big and
they can, you know, one well can serve, you know, several acres, let’s say. Um
but it’s all, you know, depends on what the what you’re using it for and then um
the productivity of the aquifer in that location. You know, it’s super productive. They can pump more water out
of the ground. Maybe there’s like a how many I’m
anticipating a followup of like how many could a well support? How many
what? Say how many could a well support safely?
It’s very variable. I mean because for for example I I I showed it in in some
of those photos. There’s a well in Brunswick, Georgia and it is humongous. It’s as tall as this room the motor and
it can that can supply 11,000 gallons a minute which is that would be a lot of people and it’s used for pro uh
industrial processed water in Brunswick. But, uh, you know, that that would be incredibly high. Then you go up to the
Piedmont and you you might have a homeowner’s well that’s going to be into this crystallin rock and they’re only
going to pump like a couple gallons a minute, but they’ll have a storage tank that they’ll pump that water in. It’ll
make their needs, you know, the pump will be running all the time and they’ll have their storage tank that will supply
the needs for that home, you know, but it’s only pumping a few gallons a minute. So, it really varies.
No more online right now.
When you were sharing the slides about saltwater incursion and groundwater pumping, um, a lot of the references to
sea level were constant over time. To what extent is sea level rise a problem
in coastal Georgia? To what extent is that integrated into the model?
Yeah, good question. And that definitely sea level rise. What basically the
question is basically what the impact of sea level rise on salt water intrusion problem. And we actually did do another
study that involved putting this into the model the scenarios of raising the sea level. And it does have an impact
you know because exactly right that you have the gradient is changing it’s becoming more pronounced toward the land
when you raise the sea level. So you will increase the extent of the aquafer
uh contamination when the sea level rises. Now we did not go to any crazy you know 10 foot rises things like that
you know but it’s more like the couple foot rise and that you know it’ll change by some you know but it’s not going to
be like a total you know wipe out of the alpha let’s say at that point but definitely an area of
concern one more online question
and I this is a question from online that is also from me echo this question. Uh, is
there a place is there anywhere that we could find data on how many gallons like
per day each well produces? Like is there somewhere that that’s a database? Um
there there is um you know I don’t know if they get it down to publicly available information about what an
individual well does but I know that there’s a per permitting through the EPD
where they will say you know we are a a ground war like the city of Savannah let’s say we know city of Savannah has a
permit and we have 20 wells and they’re permitted to pull out you know 20 million gallons a day to that level.
Okay. Uh things have become a lot more restrictive and I used to work for USGS back in the day we would just let
anybody come in and look at our files that we have of of well information but
they’ve become so concerned about u you know private information or like uh
safety of the water supply type of thing that they don’t want anybody to see anything. So they basically shut all
those files down for the public and it’s like you know you have to have very special uh dispensation to get that
information now but it used to be you could come you know somebody could walk in off the street and go I want to look in your files for Chattam County and see
what what’s here. Um that’s much more difficult to do now.
Cool.
Yeah. Thank you, John. We really appreciate it. And uh thank you everybody for coming. I will share a
couple things uh next
that we’ve got. Um
what’s the other file? Give me one second.
So, we do have a couple things going on um soon. Like I said, we are doing the
jazz hands and other things of that sort, but we also have Yep. I got it right here. Okay.
So, um one of the things that’s going on in Georgia is a
massive pipeline extension. This is natural gas. It is coming from like it’s
across the southeast. It’s called SSE4 in Georgia and it’s going to go from uh
Columbus all the way to Augusta. There is an existing pipeline. It is just much smaller than what they’re looking to do
right now. Um, and they uh are this is the comment period
for um getting your information out there for talking about this and making public comment on it. Um, telling people
what’s going on that ends on March 18th. You can use this QR code to go to our
website where you can find a lot more information, find out how to make a public comment or to um sign on to uh
letters or other things of that sort that is being pushed through by Southern Environmental Law Center and other
concerned groups. Um, this is part and parcel to some of that
new energy generation in Georgia, but also just moving natural gas across to
all the way like to Avesta where it’s going to be moved out of state and other things of that sort. Um, or maybe even
just shipped out of the country. So, we’ll see how those things go. Um, but yeah, so this is one of the big things
that’s going on in Georgia right now that you can be a part of if you are concerned about this. If you know people
who are along the path in those cities, please make sure that they have that information. There’s still some public
comment um inerson events in uh Georgia
coming up I think this week and into March. Um or they’re finishing up
Alabama and then they’ll be going into Georgia uh in the beginning of March. Um but yeah, it’s all available on the
website and then uh if you are interested in doing more with
Science for Georgia, please get involved. Um you can follow this QR code, find out more about what our
events are, everything that’s going on, ways to volunteer, and ways to get involved in your community. But thank
you very much. We really appreciate you being here and being online. Um and yeah, thank you. See you next time. Bye
bye. It’s great.