'Could not be prouder': President signs bill saving New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam
AUGUSTA,
January 7, 2025
Originally published by The Augusta Chronicle
President Joe Biden has signed a bill into law requiring the continued upkeep of Augusta's New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. Under the new Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024, the 87-year-old lock and dam will be fully repaired to keep the pool level along Augusta's riverfront at 114.5 feet. "This is a historic day for the CSRA, residents of the 12th District, and all of east Georgia," said U.S. Rep. Rick Allen in a statement Monday. Biden signed the water act Saturday. "We faced many obstacles, tenuous legal battles and what seemed to be insurmountable roadblocks," Allen said. "But one thing was clear from the beginning − any option that resulted in a significant drop in the water level was a non-starter for local businesses, homeowners and families. This was no small feat, but I could not be prouder that we persevered." The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' previous plan was to tear down the lock and dam and replace it with a fixed rock weir that the Corps said would improve the spawning migration of the Atlantic shortnose sturgeon.That, said U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, "would have been detrimental to the North Augusta community, irreversibly lowering the water levels in a manner that would negatively impact economic development, recreation and industry up and down the river. Congress passes the development act every two years to set water management priorities for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps relegated the lock and dam to "caretaker" status in 1985 after commercial navigation stopped on the Savannah River. That put the lock and dam out of the running for federal funds that could have paid for its upkeep. A 1999 corps study concluded that the lock and dam no longer fulfilled its navigational purpose and should be scrapped. Congress voted in 2000 to repair it, but the project was never fully funded. |
