Drought Likely to Trickle to the Coast Tropical Storm Barry, However, Replenished the Lower Savannah River.

By MARY LANDERS

SAVANNAH – The drought gripping North and Middle Georgia is likely to spread to the coast soon, increasing impacts on the Savannah River, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service said Thursday night.

John Feldt, hydrologist in charge at the Southeast River Forecast Center, offered his remarks at a public meeting sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the drought plan for the river.

The lower Savannah already would be in drought status if not for the effects of Tropical Storm Barry, which dropped more than 6 inches of rain across the area in early June, he said.

During the past 60 days, however, rainfall here has been less than 5 percent of normal.

The corps already has limited the outflow from Thurmond Dam to a weekly average of 3,600 cubic feet per second. That’s the amount the state’s Environmental Protection Division has determined is needed to allow the river to accept its current pollution load. Reducing outflow decreased the amount of electricity generated by the dams’ power plants but conserved more water in the reservoirs.

The low flow soon could put a strain on Mike Neal’s river excursion business, he told the gathering Thursday.

“In certain places, there’s not more than 3 feet of water going across,” he said. “At Cohen’s Bluff, the boat ramp is unusable.”

Some drought is good for natural systems, such as the Savannah River’s floodplains, according to Amanda Wrona Meadows of The Nature Conservancy.

“Natural drying out is good, too,” she said, citing a statistic that the Savannah River in its natural state had a flow of only about one-sixth of its current rate at this time of the year before the dams were constructed.

“Tupelo and cypress seedlings are growing as fast as they can now so they can survive the next flood,” she said.

On the minds of many of the more than 50 attendees at the Coastal Georgia Center were the ramifications for the Savannah River not from the drought, but from a proposed expansion of Plant Vogtle, a nuclear power plant on the river near Waynesboro. An expanded plant is projected to lose as much water to steam production as the combined daily water use of the residents in Savannah, Atlanta and Augusta.

Savannahian Steve Willis questioned whether an expanded Vogtle would be able to operate safely during a future drought.

Jeff Larson, EPD assistant branch chief for watershed protection, downplayed the expansion’s possible effects as “inconsequential.”

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