Georgia, S.C. plan no appeal of Russell turbine ruling

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Posted 9:40PM on Wednesday, May 15, 2002

AUGUSTA - Georgia and South Carolina will not appeal a judge's ruling to allow reversible hydropower turbines at Russell Dam along the Savannah River, officials said Wednesday. ``I think we're done with it,'' Buford Mabry, chief counsel for South Carolina's Department of Natural Resources, told The Augusta Chronicle. Georgia authorities have no plans to appeal the case, either, assistant fisheries chief John Biagi said. The dam on the South Carolina-Georgia border has four reversible turbines to pump water from Lake Thurmond back to Lake Russell for reuse in power generation. South Carolina and the state's chapter of the National Wildlife Federation sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1988 to block the units because of concerns of fish kills. The suit, joined later by Georgia, ended last week with a federal judge's ruling in favor of the corps. ``Basically, they have taken the position they can kill millions of fish without there being an adverse impact, and the court has agreed with them,'' Mabry said. ``Now we'll have to see whether they'll keep their promises.'' The corps, which spent $34 million on environmental testing and fish protection programs, intends to fulfill its commitments, corps spokesman Jim Parker said. Those commitments include a $4.5 million oxygenation system in Thurmond Lake that will benefit striped bass; and restrictions on hydropower generation that scientists say will minimize fish kills in the Thurmond Lake headwaters. Angela Viney, executive director of the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, said she would like to appeal, but ``at some point we have to put our passions aside and be realistic.'' On Wednesday, divers converged at the $618 million hydropower project on the Savannah River to begin inspecting racks and other components of the reversible turbine intakes.