In The News

At the beginning of what turned into a lively public hearing Thursday, the cities of Augusta and North Augusta were given a little sticker shock: the option they want to repair New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam will now cost nearly $400 million over the 100-year life of the program, according to new figures from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And it is no longer an option anyway because it is not as good at passing endangered fish up the Savannah River to Augusta, a Corps spokesman said.

At times indignant and defiant, at times funny or filled with angry shouts from the audience, the cities gathered public comments to send to the Corps as part of its response to its recommended plan that would also lower the pool in the river between the two communities.

The pool of water in the river will drop if the Corps use its plan to remove the lock and dam and replace it with a rock weir that will dam the Savannah at a certain height but also allow fish to migrate over it. The project is mitigation for the impact the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project will have on spawning grounds in river near the port, where deepening is projected to allow saltwater to creep father up the river and damage areas now used by endangered shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon and other migratory fish. Removing the lock and dam and putting in the weir would allow those fish to access historic spawning grounds in the Augusta Shoals the Corps believes were blocked when the structure was completed in 1937.

While the Corps estimates that lowering would be about two feet at the Fifth Street Bridge, a simulation of those conditions in February showed it will be “much greater than that,” said Augusta Utilities Director Tom Wiedmeier. “I would guess four-plus feet.”

But Corps spokesman Russell Wicke said the drop was 3½ feet at the dam and the river level must be higher than that downtown.

That drastic drop is what spurred homeowners and lawmakers on both sides to come together to fight the plan in what U.S. Rep, Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called a “bi-state and bipartisan” effort. As he spoke, Richmond County Democratic Party Chairman Emeritus Lowell Greenbaum sat directly in front of him nodding in appreciation.

“You’re right,” he said. Greenbaum and his wife helped fight to get legislation to repair the lock after a drastic drawdown in 2000 but it was never funded.

“So we’re back to the same place,” he said.

Both Wilson and U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., who was also on hand, contend that the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act in December 2016, requires the Corps to “maintain the pool for water supply and recreational activities that existed on the date of enactment,” which Wilson said is an average of 113.5 to 114.5 above sea level. That is well above what the Corps is proposing and “I believe it is simply not within the law.”

Allen said the two had hand-delivered a letter to the Secretary of the Army asking him to look into what the Savannah District of the Corps is doing, which he said is deceiving members of Congress.

“We think that is subordination and should be dealt with,” he said. He said the bottom line will be the lock and dam “is going to stay in place. It is going to be repaired. And it is going to be maintained. Period.”

But the Corps believes that will come at a hefty price. At $380 million under the new estimate, which is more than double a previous estimate, it is far more expensive than the Corps’ recommended option at $105 million. But Allen said “I don’t trust their numbers.”

Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis also said the new estimate is “astronomically different” than previous estimates. He also pointed out that leaders on both sides of the river had been assured that the change would not affect their riverfronts substantially.

“The simulation demonstrated that the Army Corps of Engineers was wrong,” Davis said. But the Corps and leaders in Savannah want the harbor project to continue “without any consideration for those of us who are upstream.”

While the Corps is looking at current impacts, they are not taking into consideration future growth, when the area’s population is expected to grow 20 percent by 2050 and its water needs increase by 34 percent, he said. The Corps plan and a diminished river “could compromise the health and well-being” of people in Augusta.

The cities, along with Aiken and Columbia counties and both congressman, are calling for the Corps to choose the repair option with a fish passage on the Georgia side of the river through what was once the lock area. That option, however, has been “eliminated from consideration” because it has been deemed by another federal agency less effective in passing migratory fish, Wicke said. “The project is called a fish passage.”

Davis said there will be a meeting next week “and we’ll find out if that is true or not.”

Wilson said U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina want the pool to remain the same. Davis said Georgia’s two U.S. senators have been “noticeably absent in this conversation.” But a representative for U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he is monitoring the situation with the lock and dam and “working with all stakeholders to find a solution that all stakeholders agree upon. He encourages the community to share its thoughts with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the public comment period through April 16.”

State Rep. Bill Hixon, R-Aiken, who introduced an amendment last week that would keep a state agency from issuing necessary permits to the Corps if the pool is lowered, said South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson are “on it” and are fighting to keep the pool the same.

They will have a lot of help from citizens on both sides of the river. Former Augusta Commissioner Moses Todd, who said he was there representing a union of 1,000 plumbers and pipefitters said they are backing repairing the lock and dam and maintaining the river.

Many riverfront property owners said they would suffer from a lowered river pool and many said the area would suffer as well. Susan Hanner of Water’s Edge tourism in Augusta would be hurt “by a Riverwalk that does not have an adjacent river,” prompting laughs from the audience. Parin Amin, of Martinez, said Augusta should accept that there has to be a fish passage and work on a different alternative that includes a rock weir. He also prompted angry shouting when he said the drawdown only affected the river channel a little.

“It just moved over a couple of feet,” said Amin, who was quickly drowned out by angry responses from those riverfront homeowners.

“I am left with nothing” if the Corps plan comes to fruition, said John Hill of RiverNorth in North Augusta.