1736 Magazine - Vision for the Future

Augusta riverfront, Lock and Dam
future unclear
By TOM CORWIN
Although the legal battle
continues, Augusta's
riverfront is safe for
now.
Augusta, North
Augusta and South Carolina have
been battling the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers over its plan to remove
New Savannah Bluff Lock and
Dam and replace it with a rock
weir fish passage that would allow
endangered Atlantic and shortnose
sturgeon to reach traditional
spawning grounds near Augusta
currently blocked by the structure.
The fish passage is part of the
mitigation the Corps must perform
to make up for damage to
the habitat for those fish in the
Savannah River caused by the
Savannah Harbor Expansion
Project as it deepens that port to
accommodate larger ships.
But more than 100 miles away,
the plan would also lower the pool
of water in the Savannah River
along the prized riverfronts in
Augusta and North Augusta, which
the Corps maintains is necessary
so that the new structure doesn't
cause nuisance flooding.
Just how low it would go became
clear in a simulation the Corps
performed in February 2019,
which left submerged hazards in
the river exposed and left muddy
flats with docks and boats sitting
on the ground across North
Augusta. The already unpopular
plan sparked howls of outrage on
both sides of the river even as the
Corps proceeded to implement it
and eventually the state of South
Carolina sued to stop it, joined by
the City of Augusta.
The heart of their argument is
that the plan violates the Water
Infrastructure Improvements
for the Nation Act of 2016 that
required the pool be maintained at
the level it was when the law was
passed in December 2016. While
the law allows the Corps to deauthorize
and remove the crumbling
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