Meeting Summary: Savannah-Upper Ogeechee May 9, 2024

To:               Savannah-Upper Ogeechee Regional Water Planning Council

From:          Ashley Reid, CDM Smith and Michelle Vincent, Jacobs

Date:           May 9, 2024

Subject:       Savannah-Upper Ogeechee Regional Water Planning Council Meeting Summary (subject

                     to Council review and approval)

Welcome, Introductions, and Council Business

Chairman Bruce Azevedo called the meeting to order. Chairman Azevedo called for a motion to approve the prior Savannah-Upper Ogeechee (SUO) Council Meeting Minutes (October 5, 2023). Minutes needed a minor spelling correction, but no additional changes were needed. Minutes were approved by motion, second, and unanimous vote.

Chairman Azevedo called for a motion to approve the draft revised agenda. Agenda was revised to reflect correct meeting date. Agenda was approved by motion, second, and unanimous vote. 

Overview of October 2023 Meeting

Ms. Reid provided a recap of the topics discussed at the last Council meeting, held October 5, 2023, at the Phinizy Center for Water Sciences, located in Augusta, GA. During that meeting, the Council discussed the key elements of the Regional Plan, including review of Groundwater Supply, Surface Water Quality, and Surface Water Availability.

The meeting also focused on current and upcoming Seed Grant projects. To date there have been 6 projects completed from 2015 – 2021, and two 2022 projects scheduled to be completed in 2024.

Since the FY2024 Seed Grant application deadline was upcoming (October 31, 2023), the group brainstormed potential Seed Grant project ideas and a presentation from Jackie Encinas, GA EPD, covering the application process and important requirements was also provided.

Project overviews were also provided for two active Seed Grant projects, led by the City of Augusta, during this meeting.

EPD Updates

General Updates

Mr. Clete Barton, GA EPD, gave brief updates on drinking water and on Nutrient Reduction Strategies. He provided the lead service line inventories deadline (due October 2024) and a link to information on trainings offered to support systems with implementation. Additionally, he discussed EPD’s commitments to update and develop nutrient-related strategies and plans, indicating that the Draft document, Update to the Strategy for Addressing Phosphorus in NPDES Permitting had been posted for public comment and review. A public meeting was held on April 4, 2024.

Seed Grant Updates

Mr. Barton provided the Council a brief update on the Seed Grant status. Two Seed Grant projects were selected this year, one from North GA and one from the Lower Flint were accepted. The next round of Seed Grants will be announced in July. Applications will be accepted this fall; Pre-application meetings deadline is October 15, 2024, and applications must be submitted by October 31, 2024. This year, there is a new application system, and the grant application must be completed online.  

Following the Seed Grant update, Mr. Barton introduced the Council to Joseph Martinenza, the new EPD Liaison for the Savannah-Upper Ogeechee Regional Planning Council. Mr. Martinenza is replacing former EPD Liaison, Hayden Blaize, who retired last year. 

There was a brief discussion regarding Seed Grant applications where SUO Council Chairman Azevedo mentioned that a pre-meeting with Council leadership is very important to ensure application packages are meeting the goals and vision of the Council. He admonished that the pre-meeting should take place before the required EPD pre-submittal meeting. 

South Carolina State Water Planning Updates

Mr. Scott Harder, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, gave an update and overview of South Carolina State Water Planning efforts. South Carolina has eight planning river basins. They are taking a “bottom-up” approach where stakeholders lead the development of the basin, and collectively, the eight river basin plans will form the new State Water Plan. 

South Carolina is using a 5-step process: 1) Surface Water Assessments, 2) Groundwater Assessments, 3) Water Demand projections, 4) River Basin Plans and 5) the State Water Plan.

Mr. Harder reviewed the status of the development of the river basin plans, noting the following details concerning the anticipated completion schedules: 

• The Edisto River Basin plan is completed. Executive summary available 
• The Broad River Basin plan is completed. 
• The Pee Dee River Basin Plan is on schedule to be completed by the end of this year.
• The Catawba, Saluda and Upper Savannah River Basin plans are underway and are scheduled to be completed in 2025. Upper Savannah River Basin planning is currently in phase II of planning. Water availability assessments are nearly complete - not a lot of shortages to date. 
• Lower Savannah/Salkehatchie River Basin Planning began November 2023. There is more groundwater in the region and no major reservoirs/lakes.  
• The Santee River Basin planning is anticipated to begin before the year end.

Mr. Harder noted that an inter-basin council had been formed for the Upper and Lower Savannah/ Salkehatchie river basins.

Additionally, Mr. Harder expressed that South Carolina is happy to work more closely with the GA Councils to share information and attend council meetings. 

The following summarizes a short discussion following Mr. Harder’s presentation.

• SUO Chairman Azevedo: Regarding quantity – do you see anything that might be a conflict? Any concerns that you’ve come across? Not aware of any recent or new concerns. History of working on TMDLs in the lower part, but not anything new.
• Scott Harder, SCDNR:  Lower Savannah – Port Royal, could have potential issues, but doesn’t affect Georgia.
• Ashley Reid, CDM Smith: nothing new, but don’t want to ignore and be complacent.
• Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper: there’s a need to restart or complete the Corps Comp Plan. It looked at lakes not at downstream affects, correct? Can there be a Nonfederal response? We should bring the rest of the councils together on this. Coastal GA is experiencing development of Hyundai facility and there’s a lack of control that utilities and local government seem to have when it comes to the local resources. How much is allocated, 40 MGD? Hyundai facility will bring in new data centers – all of water allocation and energy gone?
• Scott Harder, SCDNR: Data centers – some concern about those – what are their needs for water and energy – other states are dealing with that same issue.

The Council expressed thanks to Scott for taking time with them. 

Operations Overview of Plant Vogtle

Council Member, Ms. Suzanne Sharkey, who also serves as an area manager for Georgia Power, provided a detailed operations overview of Plant Vogtle, the largest generator of clean energy (emissions free energy) in the U.S. Ms. Sharkey informed the group that she was assigned to Plant Vogtle from 1997-2011. She opened her presentation with a statement on safety. Noting “We believe the safety of our employees, guests and customers is paramount. We will perform and maintain every job, every day, safely.”

Plant Vogtle is a nuclear power plant located in Burke County, GA. Ms. Sharkey provided detail descriptions of Units 1&2, and then Units 3&4. She explained that the “Units” are structures that enclose the nuclear reactor. Units 1&2 began construction in 1976 and began commercial operation in 1987 and 1989, respectively. Unit 3 began commercial operations in July 2023, and Unit 4 just began commercial operation on April 29, 2024. Units 1&2 consist of a Westinghouse 4-loop pressurized water reactor type. Units 3&4 consist of a Westinghouse AP1000 reactor type.

Ms. Sharkey talked through a process schematic, showing the five major components of the power generation process at Plant Vogtle: reactor, steam, turbine, generator and electricity. She explained the turbines, powered by steam, turn to produce electricity.

There are currently 94 nuclear energy units currently operating in the U.S. Ms. Sharkey reiterated that Plant Vogtle is home to 4 of those 94 units. Other countries such as China and India, have multiple reactors currently under construction.

Ms. Sharkey discussed Georgia Power’s past and projected energy mix. In 2021 “carbon free” included mostly solar and hydroelectric power and was responsible for 37% of total power generation. In 2024, nuclear energy will account for 33% of 51% carbon free energy mix projected. 

Ms. Sharkey discussed Southern Company’s path to Net Zero Carbon Emissions, with a net zero goal of 2050. She indicated that power sources such as solar, wind and biomass are being utilized and further explored, however, nuclear power is able to generate a tremendous amount of energy. Ms. Sharkey shared a power production equivalent table indicating that one uranium pellet (nuclear power source) was equivalent to the following:

• 1 ton of coal
• 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas
• 5,000 pounds of wood
• 149 gallons of oil

Ms. Sharkey discussed the maintenance and refueling schedules and requirement associated with the Plant Vogtle units. Maintenance and refueling is required approximately every 18 months – the operation requires hundreds of contractors and the check, repair and replacement of multiple systems. New fuel is added and approximately 40% used fuel is removed. Some used fuel is stored in spent fuel pools and other used fuel is stored in dry canisters. In closing Ms. Sharkey reviewed some of the challenges the plant has faced and overcome in its years of operation, and the lessons learned through bringing Unit 3 online that they were able to apply to Unit 4. 

Stormwater and Water Resource Planning

Ms. Caroline Smith, Stormwater Program Manager with the Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP), began her presentation by providing the Council with the definition of stormwater. She explained its relation to water quality, and effective ways to manage it. She gave a brief history and overview of GAWP as well. Noting that it is a professional organization for water professionals that began in 1932 with a focus on drinking water treatment education and training. Since then, GAWP has expanded to address wastewater treatment, water resources and stormwater management, water conservation, utility management and customer service. GAWP has over 4,000 individual members and 300 utility and corporate members. 

Ms. Smith reviewed the definition of a watershed and explained the water cycle and stormwater runoff. Stormwater has a connection to both quantity and quality. Ms. Smith discussed the variety of pollutants that can be carried via stormwater runoff, such as sediment, total suspended solids, hydrocarbons, heavy metals, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), and issues such as total organic carbon. Bacteria such as fecal coliform and E. coli are also often carried by stormwater. Water temperatures are also impacted by runoff from hot pavement.

Stormwater impacts aquatic life, assimilative capacity, treatment costs, water taste and odor and recreation/tourism. Tools for managing stormwater include leveraging existing partnerships and funding, promoting best management practices, education and outreach, 

The following summarizes a short discussion following Mr. Smith’s presentation.

• SUO Chairman Azevedo: The Metro District is ahead of everyone on stormwater. At what point do we start focusing on this? Could add “Stormwater Master Plans” to plan BMP listing.
• Commenter: – Metro does have enforcement, “teeth” that other councils don’t have.
• Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper: Think about low impact design – climate change – stormwater risk to life due to flash flooding. 
• Caroline Smith, GAWP: GAWP can help members implement and modify model ordinances. GAWP also has standard design templates for a variety of documents that local governments can use for free to assist with this. 
• Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper: Related to temperature, Trout streams have a larger buffer because fish are more susceptible to temperature. 
• From a drinking water perspective, it is more expensive to treat water with higher pollutant loads.
• Caroline Smith, GAWP: Backyard drainage systems with flooding and erosion are increasingly becoming an issue. Having a plan is a good first step towards getting funding and successfully implementing actions to address problems. 
• For instance, there are several sinkholes in the news due to faulty stormwater infrastructure – water goes under a stormwater pipe, creates a giant void in the earth, which becomes a sinkhole. Infrastructure has been neglected. Important to get an inspection and maintenance plan in place to effectively manage these types of infrastructure needs for the future. 
• SUO Chairman Azevedo: How do we approach it now? It’ll take five years to get into a plan.
• Caroline Smith, GAWP: Understand that the previous approach to stormwater was to get it off land and into drainage system as soon as possible. So now is the time.
• Suzanne Sharkey, Georgia Power:  This is good information. There was a failed storm pipe that wasn’t fixed for a year until funding was received. Emergency vehicles were not able to get around and it created a safety hazard. 
• SUO Chairman Azevedo: The Council should develop something that fits our region and smaller communities, so they can get the information and support for applying for grants. 
• Suzanne Sharkey, Georgia Power: It’s important to coordinate with development and assist with where there might already be problems. A lot of developers don’t want to collaborate.

To keep to agenda, the Council expressed interests in hearing more about initiatives to help smaller communities with stormwater planning. They thanked Ms. Smith for speaking with them.

Soil Amendments Regulatory Update

Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper, presented an update on the status of the soil amendments regulatory activity. She explained that there has been a soil amendment issue in this area for years, but this is the first Agriculture Commissioner (Tyler Harper) that was willing to talk about it. Tonya noted that when the team began, there was no regulation, but significant rulemaking has taken place. The rule is not yet in effect but there could be another opening and change of the rule in future.

The Rule is intended to reduce complaints. The product itself is not regulated by EPD, but the legislation that passed allows GA State Agriculture regulators to issue stop work orders, where previously they could only revoke the permit.

Tonya noted that this is only the beginning. The problem is ongoing.

Ms. Reid offered congratulations to all who contributed to the effort.

Speaker/Topic/Field Trip Brainstorm Exercise

Ashley Reid noted that although the latest plan revision was recently adopted, the planning process continues. She asked that council members please continue to think about topics of interests and send them her way.

The group discussed a tour of Plant Vogtle during the next meeting. A council meeting could either lead into the plant tour or occur afterwards on site. This meeting was discussed for early fall.

Next Steps, Public Comments, Wrap Up & Adjourn

Chairman Azevedo thanked the speakers and asked if there were any members of the public or elected officials present who wished to provide any comments. 

Carol Flaute, Northeast Georgia Regional Commission, expressed interest in facilitating conversations on stormwater outreach and working with local governments. She asked the Council to please consider the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission as a partner in these efforts, noting that they write a large percent of Comp plans, and work with local governments on many plans and support outreach. 

No other public or agency comments were forthcoming. 

Chairman Azevedo noted that the next meeting will be tentatively planned for early fall, depending on Plant Vogtle’s availability. Next meeting will include topics on Seed Grants, MNGWPD, USACE Regional Project updates. Ms. Reid will send out a poll to get council member availability.  

Chairman Azevedo made mention that it’s his understanding that most of the council members’ terms had expired in March. He expressed concern regarding the timeliness of appointments.

With no additional comments. Ashley Reid asked everyone to travel safely with the severe weather. Meeting was adjourned at 1:34 pm.

Meeting Attendance

Council   

• Bruce Azevedo (Chair)
• Patrick Goran
• Tomas Jordan
• Suzanne Sharkey, Georgia Power
• Lee Vaughn
• Brendan Thompson
• Dink NeSmith (via Teams)
• Charles Cawthon (via Teams)
• Scott MacGregor (via Teams)

GA EPD

• Joseph Martinenza 
• Clete Barton

Planning Contractors

• Ashley Reid (CDM Smith)
• Autumn McNeill (CDM Smith)
• Michelle Vincent (Jacobs)

Public and Agency Partners

• Scott Harder, DNR S. Carolina
• Wes Byne, Augusta-Richmond County
• Oscar Flite, Augusta-Richmond County
• Carol Flaute, NEGRC
• Frank Carl, Savannah Riverkeeper
• Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper
• Jarald Penzo, Glynn County

Related to: 

• Savannah Upper Ogeechee