The Augusta Canal, showing its age after 163 years, will get a makeover of sorts when the Utilities Department empties the entire waterway in January.
"It'll be drawn down through opening and closing a combination of gates," said Drew Goins, the department's assistant utilities director for water production.
Although the canal is best known as a National Heritage Area that attracts bicyclists and boaters, its original purpose -- providing residents with drinking water -- remains its primary function.
As part of expanding a unique waterworks system built in 1899, the draining will allow contractors to install a pair of 60-inch lines that will transfer millions of gallons of raw water each day from the canal to the Highland Avenue treatment plant, Mr. Goins said.
Tentative dates are Jan. 8 to March 8.
The canal, fed by the Savannah River, begins at the headgates in Columbia County and flows downhill toward Augusta, where its steady flow provides hydromechanical power to pump raw water several miles to Highland Avenue.
The system, which saves the costs of using electric or diesel pumps to transport water, is as remarkable now as it was a century ago, Mr. Goins said.
"We think we're smart today, but these people 100 years ago thought all this up and made it work, even before electricity."
During the eight weeks the canal is dry, the city will have an opportunity to try out a pair of 2,500-horsepower diesel pumps installed at the pumping station as a backup in case of an emergency that prevents the canal from being used as a water source.
Those pumps can move water directly from the Savannah River to Highland Avenue, Mr. Goins said.
The Highland Avenue plant can produce as much as 45 million gallons of drinking water daily.
The addition of a new filtration building and general upgrades throughout the site -- part of a broad, $68 million improvement package -- will increase that capacity to 60 million gallons.
Augusta's population uses anywhere from 24 million gallons per day in the winter to a summer usage that peaks between 42 million and 45 million gallons per day, Mr. Goins said.
The $13.8 million in additional improvements at the raw water pumping station will be one of the final components in a plan to insure Augusta's water needs through at least 2050.
During the period the canal is drained, workers will shore up eroding canal banks, remove dead trees and take other measures to control erosion and prevent leaks and seepage, said Dayton Sherrouse, the executive director of the Augusta Canal Authority.
"We're also going to do some maintenance work on some of the intake areas at the mills," he said, noting that steel racks that filter weeds and debris from turbine intakes are in need of repairs.
In addition to providing drinking water, the canal's flow also turns turbines that produce electricity at Enterprise, King and Sibley mills near downtown Augusta.
"During the draining, all the turbines will be offline," he said. "During that time we'll have to go 100 percent on Georgia Power, and the Petersburg boats will be dry-docked and not operated."
Electricity produced by the Enterprise Mill turbines powers the entire residential and business complex and the Canal Interpretive Center and also provides surplus power that -- under an agreement with the mill's owners -- supplements the Canal Authority's budgets.
The loss of canal power, and the loss of additional revenues, means the Canal Authority will forfeit about $150,000 in revenues during the period of the draining, Mr. Sherrouse said. "It's a pretty significant amount for us, so we've asked that they compress the project to make the interruption as short as possible."
Reach Rob Pavey at (706) 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.
KEY DATES
1800s
1844: Augusta Canal conceived by planners despite skeptic local officials and controversy.
1845: Ground was broken and crews worked at a feverish pace to complete the project.
1846: Water began flowing through the gates Nov. 23.
1847-48: Initial mills include Augusta Factory and Granite Flour Mill
1852: First enlargement; wing dam is extended across river.
1859: Augusta Water Works is constructed at Canal Basin.
1862-63: Confederate States Powder Works is constructed. Made 2.75 million pounds of powder, plus shells and hand grenades. Complex stretched two miles along canal.
1873: Canal is enlarged to 150 feet wide and 11 feet deep. Lake Olmstead is formed.
1875: New headgates, lock and dam are constructed.
1877-82: Enterprise Manufacturing, Sibley Manufacturing, J.P. King Manufacturing companies are founded, mills built.
1888: Canal is damaged by major flood.
1899: Augusta Water Works intake is built near Coleman's Branch. It is still in use.<
1900s
1908: Canal is damaged again by major flood.
1915: City levee is begun.
1925: Mills begin to electrify operations.
1929: Largest flood on record in Augusta
1936-40: Levee is enlarged with assistance from Corps of Engineers and Works Progress Administration.
1964: Major flood; levee gates and stop-logs are closed.
1975: Augusta Canal is placed on National Register of Historic Places.
1978: Historic Augusta Canal and Industrial District is named a National Historic Landmark.
1989: Georgia Legislature creates Augusta Canal Authority.
1993: Master Plan is completed and published.
1994: Master Plan is adopted by City Council of Augusta and the Richmond County Board of Commissioners.
1995: Initiated efforts with Congress to receive designation as National Heritage Area; World Canal Conference is held in Augusta
1996: Augusta Canal is designated by Congress as a National Heritage Area.
1997: Established permanent office and hired first full time director
1998: Executed Cooperative Agreement with National Park Service
1999: Opened temporary visitors center for heritage area; completed management plan for heritage area; Long Gate Spillway improvements are completed ($75,000).
2000s
2000: Management Plan for Augusta Canal National Heritage Area approved by Secretary of the Department of the Interior; sections of first level of canal are dredged ($365,000).
2001: Hydroelectric plant at Enterprise Mill renovated and put in service ($525,000); Master Plan for Interpretive Center is completed; Canal Authority purchases King Mill and leases it to Standard Textile of Augusta.
2002: Canal Interpretive Center is completed and opened, with orientation movie ($3.3 million).
2003: Petersburg Boat Docks completed, along with first Petersburg Tour Boat ($705,000); construction begins on canal multiuse trail ($1.25 million).
2004: Second Petersburg Tour Boat completed ($325,000); canal multiuse trail construction finished ($1.25 million); work begins on renovation of canal headgates and locks ($638,600); renovation of four headgate historic buildings completed ($842,500); construction begins on third level canal improvements ($8,300,000); remediation by Atlanta Gas Light Co. ($50,000,000); receives $835,000 Transportation Enhancement grant from the Georgia Department of Transportation for Phase III of canal multiuse trail (New Bartram Trail).
2005: Renovation completed on 1875 Gatehouse and 1875 and 1845 locks ($640,635); wins first place photography award (Southeast) for National Historic Landmarks and third place photography award (U.S.) for National Historic Landmarks; receives new 50-year license for Enterprise Hydroelectric plant.
2006: Receives $550,000 Transportation Enhancement grant from the Georgia Department of Transportation for Phase IV of the Canal Multiuse Trail; dredging and widening of the third level of the canal is completed ($8.3 million); construction begins on new pedestrian bridge across the canal ($521,168).
2008: Volunteers re-open Aqueduct Park, attracting new interest to the canal; and city officials continue to move ahead with a major rehabilitation of the waterworks pumping station.
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