Press Releases

This week, Congressman Rick W. Allen (GA-12) spoke on the House floor expressing disappointment that the Water Resources Development Act was brought forward for a vote without a chance to amend the legislation. He urged members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to work with him and members of the Georgia delegation to include language to protect the pool in final legislation that will be negotiated with the Senate.

Additionally, Congressman Allen worked with the majority of the Georgia delegation to send a bipartisan letter to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as well as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, urging them to include consensus language in the final bill.

The full letter can be read here, and Congressman Allen’s remarks can be found below.

I rise today to highlight an issue in my district that I have been working tirelessly on- and that is to preserve the pool at the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam.

I am extremely disappointed that this legislation was brought before the House with no opportunity to amend the bill before negotiations begin with the Senate.

The lock and dam and the pool it creates is critical to the Augusta community and is utilized for municipal and industrial water supply as well as recreation.

The Corps recently selected a rock weir as an alternative to replace the lock and dam - a design that drops the pool level and was demonstrated last year with disastrous results.

Not only does this plan not meet the requirements of the WIIN Act, local stakeholders have expressed serious concerns with the Corps’ proposal.

Moving forward with the rock weir is unacceptable and I thank my colleagues from Georgia for their bipartisan effort to champion this issue in the recent committee markup.

I urge the committee to work with me to include language in the final bill that will repair and maintain the lock and dam and the pool, while still accommodating the mitigation project.