Officials here ended the second interim of the Savannah River Basin Comprehensive Study due to inadequate analysis, a lack of full partnership concurrence on the recommendation and insufficient funding.

As we drafted the report we expected to recommend “Alternative 2,” which would further restrict the flow of water from Thurmond Dam earlier during drought. Without acceptance of the Alternative 2 analysis the current drought contingency plan, also known as the “No Action Alternative,” remains in effect. As a reminder, our current plan was updated in 2012.

The cost of this federal study was shared with Georgia, South Carolina and The Nature Conservancy.

Issues leading to study termination
In addition to agency concerns over potential water quality with Alternative 2, we found the hydropower effects analysis incomplete and identified other technical issues that would require additional modelling, further analysis, re-coordination with agency partners and significant adjustments to the report.

These concerns and the need to address them through more analysis, continued to prolong the study over the past few years, until the funding levels could no longer support the work needed to determine if Alternative 2 will have no significant impacts.

Our senior water manager and hydraulic engineer Stan Simpson indicated reducing flows any further in this river system should be approached with caution.

He wrote: “Since the creation of the original Savannah River Drought Plan in 1989, we have further modified drought operations 3 times to reduce releases and I suspect [with the current plan] we’re very close to a minimum limit beyond which there would be significant adverse impacts, particularly to the environment, but also in other areas, such as energy production.”

He added that although there was no change to our drought plan, the study enabled us to learn a great deal more about hydrology in the basin.

“The model we created and refined from the study is now being used for our ongoing water supply study in the Hartwell Reservoir,” he said.

Purpose of the Comprehensive Study
The demand for water during drought conditions strains the Savannah River Basin due to conflicting needs for water. When rain deficits cause drought, we reduce outflows from the dams according to our drought contingency plan.

The second interim of the Comprehensive Study aimed to address whether another update to the drought plan was warranted using data from the most recent “drought of record” for the basin, which occurred from 2011 to 2013. The intent was to determine if the plan could be adjusted to further restrict Thurmond Dam discharge without causing significant or lasting adverse impacts.

In order to ensure the water management plan equitably meets competing demands for water we must coordinate the plan with federal and state natural resource agencies, as well as other stakeholders including the greater public, to balance the needs of the Savannah River’s upstream and downstream users, and the surrounding environment.

The entire SRB Comprehensive Study is a long-term effort and broken up into several interim phases. The first phase was completed in 2006. It included a water supply survey, a flow dataset, and a computer model for the basin to help identify how changes in operations affect reservoir levels and downstream conditions. It also included the 2006 Environmental Assessment that updated the Corps’ 1989 Drought Contingency Plan in response to the then drought of record from 1998-2002.

Future interim studies within the greater Comprehensive Study will be considered in coordination with cost share partners as funding allows.

1. ~Russell Wicke, Corporate Communications Office

As the summer kicks into full gear and hurricane season does, too, we normally see a slight, welcome bump in July precipitation along the Savannah River Basin. This year, not so much.

While each of the sub-basins fell short of its average by a half an inch or more, it’s interesting to point out all three collected almost exactly the same amount:

We’ve definitely had better Julys – like in 2013 when Hartwell was inundated with 13+ inches and Thurmond and Russell each received about 10 inches – but all in all, it was just another “meh” month: nothing to write home about, but probably not a cause for concern, either.

Speaking of concern, if you haven’t restocked your hurricane / emergency kit for the season, now is the perfect time. Ready.gov has several helpful tools.

This week, unless you live in the Carolinas, you probably read or watched more about Hurricane Isaias than you experienced. Here in downtown Savannah we received less rain than a typical afternoon summer shower with nominal winds.

I say this not to taunt the hurricane gods, but as a gentle wake-up call to be prepared for the next one. We took the opportunity to mobilize our survey vessels and personnel, and triple check our supplies (now with COVID-19 bonus items like masks and sanitizer).

In the event a storm forces the Brunswick or Savannah ports to close, our teams work with the Coast Guard and Georgia Ports Authority to identify potential navigational hazards (such as debris or shoaling) after the storm as passed.

Isaias was the ninth named storm of the season and NOAA’s Hurricane Center still expects a busy hurricane season.

As the graph at the top of this post indicates, we are now on the cusp of peak season where the number of hurricanes and tropical storms begins to increase precipitously.

Last year, we produced a short video on three steps the public can take to prepare for hurricane season. These tips are a good place to start.

However, it’s not a bad idea to consider (and plan) for how the current pandemic could complicate the situation on the ground as it relates to evacuations and storm preparations.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to be prepared for the unexpected and, as always, to remain flexible.

~ Jeremy S. Buddemeier, Corporate Communication Office