In The News

The New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam is one step closer to undergoing repairs necessary to save the aging structure.

Speaking from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Rick Allen said he was "thrilled to finally stand here today with a message for my community: A legislative solution to maintain the pool level and repair the lock and dam will soon be on its way to the president's desk."

The House passed a bipartisan-backed Senate version of the Water Resources Development Act requiring a full repair of the lock and dam and that the Savannah River's pool level at Augusta be maintained at 114.5 feet.

Enacting those requirements has been the goal of Augusta-area residents who say the locks, built in 1937, are crucial in maintaining safe river levels for the city and surrounding communities.

The House version of the bill reached the Senate in July, but left without language to keep the lock and dam safe. Allen, who represents U.S. House District 12, which includes Augusta, worked with "local stakeholders" to craft a version of the bill with lock-and-dam requirements re-inserted, the lawmaker said.

Congress passes the development act every two years to set water management priorities for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps dropped the lock and dam to "caretaker" status in 1985, several years after commercial navigation of the Savannah River stopped in the 1970s. The change renderd the structure less competitive for federal funds that could have paid for continued maintenance.

A 1999 corps study concluded that the lock and dam no longer fulfilled its navigational purpose and should be scrapped. Congress authorized a repair project in 2000, but it was never fully funded.

The corps contended that the lock and dam disrupted the traditional Savannah River spawning path for endangered Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon. The corps recommended building a fixed rock weir that could help guide the fish upstream.

Lock and dam supporters said that removing the structure would drop the water level to the river bed, and would resemble the corps' drawdown simulations on the river that destabilized developed riverbanks.

In November 2020, a federal judge barred the corps from pursuing its rock weir after ruling that the plan didn't meet the requirements of a 2016 federal law stipulating that the 114.5-foot water level must be maintained because that was the measured level at the time the law was passed.