Groundwater in Georgia: Out of Sight but Frequently Not Out of Mind
Article by Gordon Rogers
Groundwater issues are perhaps the most misunderstood, certainly the least addressed in the
popular press, yet arguably some of the most important water issues in Georgia. This is partly
because we ‘can’t see it’ until it pops up as a spring, but also partly because groundwater
resources in Georgia are highly varied, VERY complex, and therefore difficult to understand in
many settings. Paradoxically, groundwater aquifers in Georgia are among the more abundant
water resources anywhere. Again, anywhere. Access to them is not difficult and their
productivity has encouraged large and long-lived industrial, agricultural, municipal, and private
residential usage. Groundwater in this state could be characterized as ‘the fountain of the
Georgia economy’.
This short summary is not intended to be a tutorial on ‘how groundwater works’ in Georgia
despite their great importance. That would take many, many pages; or even to be a list of what
all of those resources are . . . where they are located, their volume or yield, their quality, or their
economic importance. Suffice it to say that there are many dozen aspects to a full summary; a
task for another time.
What we wish to do is to give you a short summary of the types of groundwater issues facing
Georgians right now, including some that are mired in controversy, but others that currently see
bright prospects for restoration of sometimes decades of damage. Let’s get started with our
‘list’, which falls into two different broad categories.
Misplaced or too permissive groundwater withdrawals threaten or have already
damaged existing resources:
- proposed withdrawals for mining along Trail Ridge on the east side of the
Okefenokee threaten longterm healthy water levels in the swamp. - Proposed withdrawals associated with massive new industrial, commercial, and
residential development west of Savannah threaten existing private drinking
wells, water supply for crops, and other existing uses in a band of counties from
Hilton Head SC to Liberty County GA - A longstanding problem of saltwater intrusion to the Floridan Aquifer in the
vicinity of both Savannah and Brunswick is caused by massive overpumping by
industry, primarily the paper industry and those plants that are ancillary to same.
From Savannah to Jesup to Brunswick and southward into Florida overpumping
has caused both Georgia and Florida regulators to establish regulatory bulwarks
that have supported those industries (and the associated jobs) but are now
limiting other types of economic growth and private property rights.
Improvements in water-use efficiency in the industrial sector, and several plant
closures over the decades, have eased the problem, but challenges remain
including the ones directly related to the situation described in the previous bullet. - Existing agricultural groundwater withdrawals alongside surface water
withdrawals in Southwest Georgia have damaged surface water flows during
droughts and during the dry portions of wet years. See below for exciting news
on broadscale remedies underway on this issue.
Contaminated groundwater at pollution sites statewide threaten or have already
damaged drinking water, property values, public resources, and health:
- Highly mobile ‘forever chemicals’, PFAS, are impacting groundwater inclusive of
private residential wells in NW GA as a direct result of spreading contaminated
biosolids that are created when industries sent poorly-treated wastewater to local
municipal plants that do not have the technology in place to remove these
dangerous chemicals. A small avalanche of legal actions is looming, suits to
address private property concerns, health issues, and the continued
environmental impact.Underground flows from the Hercules/Pinova site in Brunswick flow under U.S.17, under and through private property, and into the salt marsh. - Long-term contamination of groundwater by caustic and mercury at the LCP site
in Brunswick have, literally, dissolved sediments under the defunct manufacturing
plant and are eating down the drinking water supply for the area. - Other sites all over the Brunswick peninsula received wastes from numerous
industrial interests and are leaching pollutants underground onto/into their
neighbors’ properties. - Similarly, sites in nearly every medium to large city in Georgia are hosts to such
dangerous trespasses. - Poorly-managed ‘sprayfileds’ also knows as ‘land application systems’ at many
municipalities and private industries in Georgia are either poorly designed, poorly
placed, overused, poorly managed (such as using during rain storms), or all four.
Polluted groundwater and even at times polluted surface water leave these sites
onto private land and into public waters. Further, certain industries that use
sprayfields such as concentrated animal feeding operations have very permissive
oversight under Georgia law in terms of monitoring and performance - Saline contamination of groundwater in the Savannah and Brunswick areas are
the result of overpumping. See bullet in the previous section.
Georgia does have a fairly robust groundwater withdrawal permitting system. The basic
framework of how, where, and how much water can be withdrawn under the law and EPD Rules
is sound. However, the actual approaches to permitting by the State need improvement. In
recent years, primarily as a product of pressures from interstate lawsuits and threats of lawsuits,
but also as scientific knowledge has increased, much better modeling of withdrawal impacts is
available. As one result the regulatory agency (EPD) has worked more closely with not only
applicants, but also other affected parties and the academic community. Dangerous issues still
abound, but progress is also being made. Most notably, the damage to surface flows in the
lower Flint River due to over-permitting is being directly addressed by a robust set of alternative
management options available to farmers on a voluntary basis, incentivized by investments
funded through the Governor’s office and the federal government due to some very good work
by Governor Kemp’s and Congressman Sanford Bishop’s staff people. Projected improvements
of drought and other dry-weather flows from Radium Springs, and in Kinchafoonee, Muckalee,
and Ichawaynochaway Creeks (tributaries to the Flint) are substantial, ecologically and
economically meaningful. Perhaps this work can be a model for restoration and conservation
work all over Georgia. Meanwhile, GAEPD needs to continue to improve its permitting
approach so that damage does not occur in the first place.
Protection from pollution of groundwater is much, much more problematic in Georgia.
Essentially, we have NO protection in a regulatory form from pollution of groundwater similar to
the Clean Water Act or the Georgia Water Quality Act for surface waters. It is only AFTER
pollution has already occurred that Georgians can seek remedies via trespass claims and/or
federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Such procedures are costly to private
citizens and frequently do not, indeed CANNOT, achieve total cleanup.
An interesting and poorly understood phenomenon in certain geographic zones is a potential
direct link between aquifer use and recharge rates, and water quality. In areas where aquifers
such as the Floridan are very close to the surface, and the water is serially used during dry
periods then rapidly recharged as rains return, rock and sediment formations that have been
bathed in water only for decades are rhythmically exposed to the air and therefore oxygen,
liberating naturally-occuring rock- and sediment-bound contaminants such as but not limited to
arsenic. This poorly-understood phenomenon may have already been a negative influence on
public health in certain regions. Much more work is needed.
In summary, approaches to use-based permitting of Georgia’s underground water resources
needs continuous improvement, and the laws protecting Georgians from contamination of
groundwater need wholesale review and recasting. The Georgia Water Coalition is tracking both
individual issues and overall policy closely, with an eye towards legislative and regulatory
opportunities.
For more information contact Gordon Rogers at Flint Riverkeeper. (912.223.6761 cell).
He is not a subject-matter expert on all of the above but can get you to the
right person.