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Study: Savannah's Water Supply OK Saltwater Not Seen As Issue for 100 Years

Posted on: Monday, 22 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

SAVANNAH -- An extensive study of coastal drinking water has wrapped up, but the debate over its findings and their policy implications is just getting started.

Tuesday night, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division presented the results of the Sound Science Initiative, a 7-year, $17 million study addressing concerns that groundwater pumping in the region is allowing saltwater to seep into the drinking water aquifer. It was the fourth of five public meetings along the coast.

A crowd of about 80 at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum heard three presentations offering the main conclusion that saltwater intrusion is at least 100 years away in the Savannah area.

Their response to the information varied in part by geography. Many of those from fast-growing areas are eager to tap into the Upper Floridan aquifer again after an eight-year moratorium. Others, including city of Savannah officials, have worried that the EPD is overlooking a study about saltwater migration.

The study shows that saltwater is migrating not only sideways from known areas of contamination near Hilton Head. It is also moving downward from the ocean and marshes near Tybee Island through the confining layer of clay that protects the Upper Floridan aquifer.

That study of the downward migration of saltwater predicts salt in Savannah wells in 50 years or less.

Bob Scanlon, the city's environmental affairs officer, was pleased to hear more respect for that study on Tuesday than he had at previous meetings.

"I'm encouraged by the fact that there's recognition that there's new data out there about a new mechanism of saltwater intrusion that may be moving faster than previously thought," Scanlon said.

One of the authors of the study is Camille Ransom, a hydrogeologist with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. He said he wasn't invited to present his study at the meeting. But like Scanlon, he was encouraged that EPD senior water policy advisor Nap Caldwell acknowledged concern over its findings.

"He said they know [saltwater] is moving down and they need to know more about it," Ransom said.

Ransom and other South Carolina officials are planning to meet with EPD director Carol Couch later this month.

The EPD directed the studies, which were paid for by Georgia, South Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey and four paper mills after salty wells on Hilton Head Island and in Brunswick indicated there was a problem.

During the investigation, groundwater use in the booming Savannah and Brunswick was capped at 1997 levels. All 24 counties in the coastal areas received only 36 million gallons a day of additional groundwater -- about the amount the Durango-Georgia paper mill in St. Marys used before it shut down in 2002 -- to further protect the aquifer.

The cap on aquifer pumping is set to expire at the end of this year. In its place, EPD is preparing a suite of water policies based in part on the results of the Sound Science Initiative.HITTING HOMEHEARING TONIGHTA public meeting about the issue of coastal drinking water will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. today at Coastal Georgia Community College, Conference Center, 3700 Altama Ave., Brunswick. For more information, call (912) 264-7284.

Source: Florida Times Union

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