An effort to develop more than 100 acres of wetlands-covered land in Effingham County flared tensions between city of Savannah employees and commissioners for the county north of Chatham, as the industrial project abuts Savannah’s drinking water intake plant on Abercorn Creek.
Savannah water and utility employees implored commissioners to deny the applicants' request to rezone the 130-acre parcel on Old Augusta Road during an hour-long discussion on whether the project threatens the drinking water supply for thousands of households in Chatham, Bryan and Effingham Counties.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
"We are here tonight. We were here last Thursday asking to meet with y'all to try and protect the drinking water for our constituents," Laura Walker, Environmental Administrator with the city of Savannah'sWater Resources Department. "I think instead of finger pointing, what our constituents would want us to do is work together to protect their drinking water."
The property was unanimously rezoned from agriculture to industrial and commissioners approved a variance request to reduce buffers between the warehouse park and residential and rural neighbors.
Phil Kieffer, the Effingham commissioner who represents the district where the project will go up, said he had a hard time believing Walker and other speakers' pleas as "a crisis."
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
"I just have a hard time understanding the sincerity of the concerns, the 'dire, dire' concerns," Kieffer said after comparing his concerns about truck traffic coming from Savannah — and the city's alleged disinterest in solving the problems it caused for Effingham -- to the impacts the Old Augusta development could have on the region's drinking water. He added that the federal protections in place should be more than enough to protect warehousing operations and industrial construction from impacting the groundwater source, which is directly upriver from the proposed project.
"I understand protecting drinking water," Kieffer continued. "I trust the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. We trust these things."
Credit: Becknell Industrial
Credit: Becknell Industrial
City of Savannah spokesperson Nick Zoller declined an interview, but provided a statement about the city's commitment to protecting Abercorn Creek. "The City of Savannah remains committed to working with our partners, both public and private, to safeguard the availability of clean drinking water throughout our region of Georgia."
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
The applicant was Chesterfield LLC, a Jacksonville-based development firm. The company plans to build four warehouses totaling 1.1 million sq. feet on about 130 acres, a third of which cannot be developed because of wetlands protections.
Due to the swampy nature of the property, the four buildings will be built around several detention ponds in the middle of the property, which will collect run-off and prevent it from flowing towards Abercorn Creek.
Importance of Abercorn Creek for Chatham, Bryan, Effingham drinking water
Concerns from five speakers during the agenda item's public hearing leaned on the probability of 100-year storms, which have been coming much more frequently due to the increasing volatility of the atmosphere because of climate change.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
If a flood were to leak run-off from the industrial site into the groundwater source at Abercorn Creek, the impact on the city's drinking water supply would be instant, according to the Savannah Riverkeeper, Tonya Bonitatibus. She also said the further development and infill of swampland hurts the county's natural ability to withstand flooding and storm events.
"You guys have some of the most amazing remaining swamplands that are left, those are the liver and kidney systems. So not only are you damaging your stormwater protection... if you'd have any type of storm, you have zero alert," she told commissioners at the Aug. 2 meeting.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
"In those instances (of contamination), an hour would be great for somebody to call the city. You don't have that here. This is instant. And if something goes wrong, that's a big problem."
Abercorn Creek services the three-county region's drinking water supply with an output of 40 million gallons a day, according to Ron Feldner, Savannah's Senior Director of Water Resources.
"The importance of this location relative to all of our well-being, both economically and environmentally, cannot be understated," Feldner told commissioners Tuesday. "And we just want you to be cognizant of these issues."
Water and sewer capacity are two of the necess factors in a region's ability to grow and develop, particularly in an area like the Coastal Empire, where the aquifer is facing salinity encroachment and the only remaining water source is Abercorn Creek, which is downstream from a water source that services households in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Industrial development meets drinking water
The dangers of industrial development come when chemicals and materials used in the construction and operations of warehousing -- diesel, tire debris, natural gas -- contaminate the groundwater and pollute drinking water.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Chance Raehn, Chesterfield LLC developer, assured commissioners and the opposition that the site grades inward, so all run-off from the project will be collected in detention ponds that are downstream from the water intake plant, and the flow of run-off will run away from the plant. He also voluntarily consented to building a five-foot berm and run-off ditch along the eastern edge of the property, where a warehouse will be 25 feet from the city of Savannah's property.
The future warehouse and logistics site is one of several going up in Effingham County, where developers are taking advantage of the regional boom wrought by the ports' record-breaking few years.
The warehouse project was one of two up for a vote at the meeting. Two other hearings, one about a fuel station and the other a warehouse, received staunch opposition from landowner neighbors, both of whom decried the increasing industrialization of the county and the impacts it has on traffic and safety.
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News
During the rezoning's public hearing, Effingham County Commission Chairman Wesley Corbitt reiterated his frustration that this was the first time the public opposed this project, since a regional study of the development's impact was already completed, and the project was up before the planning and zoning board in July.
Rita Elliott, the leader of a newly formed nonprofit aimed at advocating for a greener county, was the only Effingham County resident to speak in opposition to the project, but said "If people knew their drinking water was at-risk, they'd be here."
Zoe covers growth and how it impacts communities in the Savannah area. Find her at znicholson@gannett.com, @zoenicholson_ on Twitter, and @zoenicholsonreporter on Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: ‘This is a crisis’: Proposed Effingham industrial park threatens tri-county drinking water
