Savannah River project in discussion after court ruling

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Leaders in two local cities are discussing the future of the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam after a federal judge blocked a plan to remove the structure.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed replacing the lock and dam with a rock weir fish age that would have dramatically lowered the pool of water in the Savannah River between Augusta and North Augusta.

Last month, a U.S. district judge ruled that the plan did not adhere to federal law. The federal Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016 required the pool to be maintained at the level it was when the law was enacted in December 2016. The Corps of Engineers can appeal the judge’s decision.

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The two Georgia cities and the state of South Carolina opposed the engineers’ plan. Republican U.S. Rick Allen of Georgia said Augusta and North Augusta are in talks about the future for the structure.

“Both of our cities are initiating a process by which they are going to be very specific about what our needs are,” Allen confirmed to the Associated Press. “We are getting experts involved. We are going to do our own specifications on what we think is the right way to do it.”

Allen secured bipartisan for a bill to repair the lock and dam and create a spawning habitat for endangered sturgeon in the river downstream from the structure, but opposition from environmental groups scuttled those plans. With the need to fund the federal government and potentially a new stimulus bill, ing the bill for the project could be difficult as the current Congress finishes its work, Allen said.