Ministry of Environment: "No Water Shortage or Electricity Cost Surge When Using Alternative Groundwater Wells at Gongju Weir"

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Ministry of Environment announced on the 17th that after investigating the usage status and electricity bill details of 27 groundwater replacement wells installed upstream of Gongju Weir on the Geum River, there were no cases of electricity bill surges or water shortages caused by the replacement wells.

In May 2019, as a water usage measure following the opening of Gongju Weir, the Ministry of Environment installed 27 replacement wells (replacing existing wells that draw groundwater from a depth of 10m) in some areas of Ssangsin-dong and Singwan-dong in Gongju City, where groundwater use was expected to be disrupted.

However, recently, some local residents claimed that the electricity bills in 2020 increased tenfold compared to before the installation of the replacement wells, and that there was a shortage of agricultural water due to groundwater not coming out.

In response, the Ministry of Environment, together with Gongju City, conducted on-site investigations from June 1 to 4 this year on all 27 replacement wells, including measuring pumping volumes and interviewing users. They also analyzed electricity bill details received from Korea Electric Power Corporation for 25 wells with consent for personal information use. Among the 25 wells, 22 were confirmed through bill details, while 3 could not be verified due to discrepancies in the name or meter serial number.

Comparing electricity bills from 2018 to 2020, before and after the installation of the replacement wells (May 2019), no clear surge trend was observed. The total annual electricity bill for the 22 wells remained around 5 million KRW each year without significant changes.

Compared to the total annual electricity bill of 4,907,000 KRW in 2018 for the existing 22 wells, it increased by 3.6% to 5,084,000 KRW in 2019, and decreased by 7.7% to 4,528,000 KRW in 2020. Examining increases and decreases by each well, some wells showed increases or decreases in 2019 and 2020 compared to 2018, so it was confirmed that electricity bills did not surge due to the replacement wells.

However, when comparing 2019 and 2020 after the installation of the replacement wells, electricity bills for Well 1 (Well A) increased by more than twice, but it was confirmed that this was not due to the replacement well. Comparing the electricity usage of Well A with Wells 2 and 3 (Wells B and C), which have similar groundwater usage, the 2020 electricity usage (8,154 kWh) was abnormally high relative to groundwater usage. Related agencies conducted additional inspections (late June to July) for power and electrical system issues such as leakage to identify other causes for the increased electricity usage of Well A, but no abnormalities were found. Accordingly, the Ministry of Environment consulted with well users and related agencies (July) and newly installed a separate meter for the replacement well (August), planning to continuously monitor electricity usage.

Additionally, the pumping volume survey for 22 wells among all wells confirmed that pumping averaged 172 m³/day (ranging from a minimum of 123 m³/day to a maximum of 208 m³/day), indicating no problems with groundwater use.

Park Mi-ja, head of the Ministry of Environment’s Four Major Rivers Investigation and Evaluation Team, said, "We are doing our best to ensure there are no problems in agricultural water use in the Gongju Weir area, including permanent measures such as groundwater replacement wells and pumping stations," and added, "We will continue to actively communicate on-site to prevent inconveniences in local groundwater use and strive to build mutual trust with farmers that there are no water usage problems even when the weir is opened."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.