Aquifer injection gets another look after ban ends | savannahnow.com

The aquifers that supply most of coastal Georgia’s drinking water lost what many considered a valuable protection on July 1.

That’s when the moratorium expired on a process called aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR for short, in which treated water is pumped into the groundwater for use at a later date.

Today, a five-member state senate study committee will meet on Jekyll Island to discuss ASR, hear from the state Environmental Protection Division on the topic and take public comment.

The sole coastal representative on the study committee, Sen. William Ligon Jr. of Brunswick, was a co-sponsor of the Senate bill that would have made permanent the recently expired moratorium. Instead

of moving the legislation out of the Natural Resources and Environment Committee in February, chairman Ross Tolleson created the study committee, effectively allowing the 15-year ban on coastal ASR to expire.

Tolleson’s move came as a surprise to state Sen. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, another co-sponsor of the bill. Carter has been an opponent of ASR stretching back to his time as mayor of Pooler.

via Aquifer injection gets another look after ban ends | savannahnow.com.