Whie the U.S. Corps of Engineers (The Corps) was aware of the pending lawsuit that would extinguish their existing planning and demolition efforts associated with with Alternative 2-6d (removing the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam and replacing the dam’s water containment functionality with an artificial rock weir, thereby lowering the pool levels at downtown Augusta and north Augusta), they continued to move forward as if their instructions were “full steam ahead.”
Well, not only did U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel order an injunction against the Corps to cease and desist, it appears that any of the Corps’ remaining steam will have to be redirected to finding an alternative plan that restores the existing dam structure, thereby preserving the communities’ ability to control the pool existing level and resurrecting, what this organization has called, a “common sense fish bypass” that satisfies the Savannah Harbor Deepening Project’s mitigation requirements.
This organization feels certain the the Riverkeeper will inevitably reveal another card or two up their sleeve; regardless, we are grateful that our many years of effort have finally gained traction.
It should never have been this difficult. The entire dam renovation project, in conjunction with a fish bypass as approved in 2012, would have been completed long, and many millions of dollars, ago.