WIth a new commander at the helm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on board in the South Atlantic Division, it appears hopeful that Corps may indeed be more open to the practicality of restoring the dam in conjunction with a more proven Atlantic Sturgeon mitigation plan, a consideration that appeared have been resisted strongly until recently.
Having attended meetings in Washington D.C., Savannah and Augusta with previous Commanders and project engineers over the past several years, constituents of Save the Middle Savannah were offered a consistent mantra, with regard to the Corps' position on the lock and dam as a key element of the Savannah Harbor Deepening Project (SHEP): “We have no position on the matter, we are contractors for the Government and will do whatever we are told.” Nonetheless, when presented with well articulated alternatives promoted by the Georgia and South Carolina delegations of Congressmen and Senators, the consistently offered new data, even to the point of contradicting previous data from bth their website and their own engineering studies, that delegations dam restoration as both a viable and more effective (both cost effective and from the perspective of achieving SHEP’s mitigation requirements.
So it appears that a long overdue breath of fresh air has been delivered by Col. Jason E. Kelly, who took over the South Atlantic Division in Atlanta in June, who toured the structure Friday with U.S. Reps. Rick Allena, Joe Wilson and elected officials from Augusta and North Augusta.
The following article from the Augusta Chronicle offers more insight in what we hope will be a more cooperative relationship with “the contractor.”