Summation of Aquifer Committee Meeting

Approved as of 6/30/00

Report to SEG

To be distributed to the full SEG membership by Ben Dysart, Facilitator, at the July 11, 2000 meeting of SEG.

 The First Meeting of the Aquifer Committee was held for 1 1/2 hours on Monday Noon, June 26th, at Armstrong Atlantic State University.  Participants are listed below.

 The members introduced themselves and developed a Purpose of the Aquifer Committee which can be amended as the meetings continue.  At present, the Purpose reads as follows:

•  To establish what impact, if any, deepening of the Savannah Harbor from 42 feet (with depths in places currently at 50 feet) to as much as 48 feet (with depths in places to exceed 48 feet) will have on the Upper Floridan Aquifer, the principal public drinking water source in the region;

•  To establish what impact, if any, the current depth may have on the Upper Floridan Aquifer;

• To develop a Scope of Work and/or other recommendation(s);

•  To continue to meet until these objectives have been established;

•  To present a SOW and/or other recommendation(s) to SEG.

 Almost the entire meeting dealt with a summation of what is known about the geology of the Upper Floridan Aquifer presented by Fred Rich, Department of Geology/ Geography, Georgia Southern University and augmented by Jim Henry, Georgia Southern University Applied Coastal Research Laboratory and Jim Renner, Golder Associates.  Essentially, the stratigraphy of the units were defined; whether the Oligocene occurs in this area, and whether the phosphoritic Miocene aged confining unit, containing several aquifer units including the Brunswick Aquifer is identified as the Brunswick Aquifer in Chatham County.  Not enough is known about the  Brunswick Aquifer in the Savannah area although Jim Henry indicated in all probability that it is absent.

 Harry Jue pointed out that the City of Savannah sought expert guidance back in March/April pertaining to the USACE 1998 report, Potential Ground-Water Impacts--Savannah Harbor Expansion Feasibility Study It was agreed that the evaluation report provided the City of Savannah of the USACE study will be made available to all Aquifer Committee members.  Harry Jue will provide Larry Keegan a copy that Larry will scan in the PDF format and distribute electronically to Aquifer Committee members.  It was agreed, also, that Rick Krause, retired hydrogeologist with the U. S. Geological Survey, and currently serving as consultant to the City of Savannah, will be invited to the next committee meeting.  It was also agreed to invite John Clarke of the U. S. Geological Survey.  Both will present their viewpoints regarding the geology and hydrogeology of the Upper Floridan Aquifer; clarifying the stratigraphic relationships; and helping to define, in their viewpoints, what impact harbor deepening may or may not have on the Upper Floridan.  Important to this discussion is to get a better understanding of the kind of exchange between water in the upper Miocene semi-confining unit and the underlying Eocene Upper Floridan, particularly in regard to multiple cones of depression and joint systems that fracture the Miocene upper semi-confining unit; and a recognized upper surface of the Eocene aquifer that is established to be karst.

 The members thank the Coastal Environmental Organization, Inc. for providing lunch at the meeting.

 

Attendees

                                  

Alexander, Clark                                      Keegan, Larry                      Watson, Chuck                                                                   

Baker, Jim                                                  Krueger, Gail

Brewton, Ben                                             Kyler, David

Farmer, Bill                                               Nooney, Michelle

Foyle, Tony                                               Plachy, Doug

Henry, Jim                                                 Renner, Jim

Jennings, Judy                                          Rich, Fred

Jue, Harry                                                  Schuberth, Chris

 

In the absence of the chair of this committee at the July 11 SEG meeting to present a verbal report, the minutes are distributed as hard copies to the SEG membership and should be posted on the web page.

 

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday Noon, August 21st at AASU, UH 282.

 

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