Biden signs bill that will preserve New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam
President Joe Biden has signed a bill into law that will preserve the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam.
As part of the new Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024, the 87-year-old facility will be repaired in order to keep the Savannah River pool level in Augusta at 114.5 above sea level.
Biden signed the act on Saturday.
“This is a historic day for the CSRA, residents of the 12th District, and all of East Georgia,” said Georgia U.S. Rep. Rick Allen in a statement issued Monday.
“My colleagues and I have maintained for years that the Army Corps of Engineers misinterpreted the clear intent of the language in the 2016 Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, requiring that the pool be maintained at 114.5 feet.”
The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a plan that involved demolishing the aging facility and replacing it with a rock weir. According to the Corps, the weir plan would prove beneficial to the spawning Atlantic shortnose sturgeon that regularly migrate up the Savannah River.
“Their selected plan to tear down the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam and replace it with a fixed rock weir would have been detrimental to the North Augusta community, irreversibly lowering the water levels in a manner that would negatively impact economic development, recreation, and industry up and down the river,” said South Carolina U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson.