The U.S. federal government has decided to reevaluate the environmental permit for Hyundai Motor Group’s $7.6 billion electric vehicle plant in Georgia, the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA). The delay is another setback for Hyundai, following a recent spate of industrial accidents at the plant.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced on August 26 that it has agreed to reexamine the plant’s environmental permit after environmentalists complained that regulators failed to properly assess the impact of Hyundai’s electric vehicle plant on local water supplies, AP reported.
Hyundai had initially hoped to begin construction of Metaplant, an 8,000-employee electric vehicle and battery production plant in Bryan County, Georgia, in October 2022, to start operations in October of this year. A new environmental assessment is likely to derail the plan.
The Army Corps of Engineers’ move to reevaluate environmental impacts began in June when the environmental group Ogeechee Riverkeeper revealed questions and possible litigation surrounding the permitting process for the metaplant’s water supply. The group alleged that the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Treasury Department failed to adequately conduct an environmental assessment of the Metaplant’s water use.
The Metaplant sits on 2,906 acres along the Ogeechee River in Bryan County. Over the past decade, several environmental impact evaluations have been conducted for the construction of the Metaplant. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) oversees water infrastructure and use, while the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for wetland protection. In October 2022, the Army Corps of Engineers authorized Metaplant to dredge and fill wetlands.
But problems arose when the state Department of Environmental Protection granted a temporary permit to develop four water intakes in neighboring Bulloch County, using up to 6.5 million gallons of water per day. The groundwater is used as drinking water for residents of neighboring counties and farm watering. Local authorities reportedly did not submit plans to the Army Corps of Engineers in advance.
“It is unusual that the Army Corps of Engineers would reevaluate its environmental impact,” the AJC reported, adding “This is a sign of growing tensions over the potential environmental impact of large-scale plants like Metaplant near the Georgia coast.”
In the meantime, the Metaplant construction site has been plagued by a string of industrial accidents due to the Korean corporate “Bbali bbali” (“hurry hurry”) culture of pushing for results. More than 20 accidents have occurred at the Metaplant site, which is home to seven companies, between January last year and May this year. This figure excludes non-traumatic accidents such as heat stroke.
In the first five months of this year, there have been 13 workplace accidents, including two falls, two head injuries, and four traffic accidents, and the company has no systematic emergency response measures or interpreters to communicate with emergency medical services (EMS) responders.
OSHA is currently conducting formal investigations into 10 cases. One of the cases involves a February 16 fall of a Georgia worker who was working at a height of about 15 feet without a safety harness. Emergency response records from that incident reveal a lack of initial workplace injury response by site managers.
“In a large warehouse lot, the supervisor in charge of directing traffic was unaware of the patient’s location, and as many as 20 to 30 workers touched the patient without permission, causing significant delays in treatment,” the EMS documented. OSHA fined the company $22,000 on August 13, citing it for two safety violations. The company is appealing the penalty.
BY JIAH YOON, HOONSIK WOO [yoon.jiah@koreadaily.com]
