AC repair in Riceboro, GA

CLARIFICATION: July 14, 2026, 6:16 p.m.: The plant’s official name is “Tradeport East Water Reclamation Facility.”

A long-awaited meeting for Riceboro residents about the Liberty County Development Authority’s planned wastewater treatment plant, which could send unused recycled water to the nearby North Newport River, drew more than 200 people Monday night.

“As we promised, we said that we will get you the experts to give you the information that you needed,” Mayor Chris Stacy told the audience.

The meeting, which was also livestreamed on Facebook, was largely a repeat of one held June 9 in Hinesville, where most of those present were from the area around the Laurel View River in both Liberty and Bryan Counties. That meeting included an organized effort of sign-waving and handing off public comment slots to leaders with Save the Laurel View River.

Riceboro native Henry Jones of HG Jones and Associates, the moderator, said he and LCDA CEO Brynn Grant have known each other “about 50 years.”

Jones told the crowd, “You actually have many stakeholders [in the project] and just know, inclusively, that you’re stakeholders that are part of that.”

Grant explained how the plant’s membrane bioreactor works, pointing out that Bryan County already has two such plants and that the award-winning Sterling Creek plant in Richmond Hill is widely recognized for its technology.

She also explained that, of three possible options, the membrane bioreactor is the cleanest technology available.

And she said that images of a pipe spewing raw sewage from a bluff into the Laurel View River were not scientifically accurate. Plans call for the clear, processed water to be dispersed through a pipe drilled under the riverbed and coming out below the surface at a depth that would not interfere with boat traffic.

Grant showed a picture of what the treated water looks like. And while she said that water was not drinkable, she added that it need not be drinkable to go into the river.

She also pointed out that the North Newport and Laurel View rivers each had five existing wastewater treatment plants. The Laurel View treatment plants were within 1,000 feet of the river, while the North Newport treatment plants included both municipal and industrial facilities.

Along the Laurel View, about 800 private septic systems are on the marsh, while along the North Newport, that number is closer to 100.

Phil Odom, who represents Liberty County on the Coastal Georgia Regional Water Planning Council, explained how local estuaries work – three zones of salt, brackish, and fresh water – all of which move in and out of coastal rivers with the tides.

Audience members submitted questions on comment cards; any cards that were not read will be answered online at cleanwaterbrightfuture.com .

One asked whether a data center was under consideration. Data centers use large amounts of water to cool supercomputers running 24/7 to provide artificial intelligence services.

Grant flatly denied any data center was in the works for Liberty County.

“We have not had a data center inquiry at the Liberty County Development Authority,” she stated. “We have not worked a data center project at the Liberty County Development Authority. So to date, it has not been a consideration at all. We understand and are watching all of the issues around data centers in the areas north of us and south of us, and frankly, all over the country and the world. Our board has not yet made any sort of position, have [not] taken any sort of position relative to data centers, but we have not had to consider one. We do not have a project that is a data center that we are working.”

Odom added, “On a state level, we are under a restriction for water use, the Saltwater Intrusion Management Plan of 1996, and it would be real hard for a data center industry to show reasonable use when we are under a restriction. And that restriction is the reason why Riceboro has a well over in McIntosh County….A data center would have a hard time meeting the criteria for reasonable use in our area.”

That plan limits how much water a given location can pump from the Upper Floridan aquifer.

The Tradeport East facility would not provide drinking water, but it would provide cooling for industrial purposes. Grant said the plan was to provide service to existing locations at Tradeport East, where purple pipe for reuse water already is in place, as well as to the Laurel View mixed-use development next door.

Those who spoke after the presentation questioned whether the project was necessary.

State Rep. Al Williams, who chairs the LCDA board, explained the plant was not about providing fresh water to Riceboro residents: “We certainly don’t want anybody to think that we want to change the flow of either the Laurel [View] River, [North] Newport. That’s God’s creation, and every time we try to improve on anything like that, you fail….We are not changing what’s out there. We are maximizing the future for our citizens and making sure – making sure – that everybody has an opportunity and that we install the best system known to make sure that we can deliver on what we promise.”

Farmer Lloyd Byrd said he was worried how this would affect his children and grandchildren: “I mean, my ancestors predate Riceboro, OK? So I’m looking at what they did to get us to where we are, and I’m charging you guys with looking at what we’re doing to get us where we’re going.”

Byrd also suggested modifying the design to reclaim excess nutrients as fertilizer and asking the state to allow the water to be purified to drinking standard: “That would alleviate all the problems that y’all are answering questions for.”

Williams said, “Byrd, I like your plan and everything, but to get that through the legislature in Georgia? Impossible.”

County Chairman Donald Lovette, who also serves on the LCDA board, compared Liberty County’s economic situation with that of neighboring Bryan County, where there are two plants of this type.

“We found out that Midway had restricted capacity to accommodate growth… so we had to find a way to untie our hands,” Lovette said.

District 4 Commissioner Tommy Blount pointed out that other treatment plants already discharge into local waters: “There’s a lot of you in here that I recognize that eat a lot of fish out of that Canoochee River, the Ogeechee River and everything, and you ain’t dead yet!…You swim in the rivers… but someone’s got to have the foresight to think ahead and let’s see where we’ve got to go.”

After the meeting, Riceboro resident Kenneth Sanders said, “I didn’t hear much, but what I heard, I was enthused by it. It was positive. They were trying to bring something to the county, and I think that growth is good.”

But not everyone is convinced the plant is either safe or necessary.

Clarissa Zabarac, whose family crabs the Laurel View estuary, commented during the Facebook livestream, “So which is it? Brynn [Grant] says ‘de minimis’ amount will go in the river, then Phil [Odom] says the discharge will help add ‘needed’ freshwater to the system. If adding it has enough effect to ‘help,’ then it’s not ‘de minimis’.”