Not since Sherman seized Savannah

Here’s an epochal development in the history of Augusta that seems to have completely escaped the attention of our political leaders and local media:

For the first time since the capture of Savannah by Union forces in 1864, Augusta’s river access to the sea is to be cut off. And this time, it sounds like it will be permanent.

On May 8, the Army Corps of Engineers posted a notice on its “Balancing the Basin” internet blog, http://balancingthebasin.armylive.dodlive.mil/2014/05/08/nsbld/ The post begins with the following paragraph:

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District and the City of Augusta, Georgia, will close all access to a portion of the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam on May 15 due to safety concerns with the aging structure. Operation of the lock will also end May 15.”

The Corps of Engineers drawing at right details problems with the downstream end of the lock wall. You might want to click this image to enlarge it.

In addition to closing water access to the Port of Savannah, this act turns Augusta’s part of the Savannah River into a skinny 13-mile-long lake.  This lake is impounded only by the aging, and now officially unsafe, dam that no one seems to have any plans to repair.

Three major consequences come immediately to mind:

•  Water supplies for the cities of Augusta and North Augusta, plus all the industries along the reach from Augusta to the dam are threatened by unabated deterioration of the dam.

•  Prospects for a revival of river commerce to and from Savannah’s growing port are extinguished.

• River tourism, including development of Augusta as a large pleasure boat destination for vessels using the River between Augusta and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway at Savannah is no longer feasible.

Then there’s the matter of all the large boats moored between the dam and the end of upstream navigable waters. 

By my count there are more than 50 such vessels with lengths between 34 and 60 feet parked along the river between Gum Swamp, SC, and the Augusta Marina. These boats live in the water. They are too big to trailer.

In the past, many have gone to marine facilities in Savannah for major out of the water repairs and maintenance.  In the future, out of water maintenance and trips to the coast will have to begin with expensive boat moving contractors using cranes and other specialized equipment.

These vessels are effectively marooned.

All of these developments should not come as a surprise to our political leaders. The U.S. Congress, in the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, authorized the Corps of Engineers to rehabilitate the lock and dam and turn it over to local governments for operation. At that time the cost was estimated to be about $24 million. The money was never appropriated.

Since then, it seems to me, our political leaders, both locally and in Washington, have done nothing to get the money and start the work to fix the lock and dam. I am hopeful that this week’s lock closure will be a wake-up call for citizens and decision-makers to get a process started to save our access to the sea.

Yesterday, a friend who will be 98 years old next October, told me when he was a boy, well before the lock and dam was built, it was not uncommon to be able to walk across the Savannah River at 5^th Street during summer droughts. “It was just a trickle,” he said, “you could jump across it.”

I have no doubt that, without some organized and passionate intervention to repair the structure, the lock and dam will continue to deteriorate to eventual catastrophic failure.

“Just a trickle” of Savannah River at 5^th Street could be in our future.

Ms. Bettencourt, however, is free to ride her trailer anyplace I care to pull it. However, I am saddened by the river closure and the likelihood that the trip we made from my dock to the sea last month will be the last such voyage for the old girl and for me.