COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Tuesday, City Council approved $98,000 for Columbia Canal repairs. This comes nearly nine years after an embankment breach at the canal and caused widespread flooding in 2015.
To get the canal back to its original function, the City has to repair the embankments and head gates, in order to pay for the gates Columbia Water needed approval for $98,000.
“Our overall goal is to get that hydroelectric generating station operating again and strengthen our water supply,” Assistant City Manager, Clint Shealy said. “This final design amendment is to help comply with a few of the additional regulatory requirements that are needed. environmental work is needed to complete the design and get us to the construction.”
This is just the beginning of a long journey.
In addition to the gate, the city has to repair the embankment where the breach occurred.
The total price tag for the repairs is between $10 --S12 million dollars which comes from grants and the water-sewer fund. After this project is complete Columbia Water will then start on its alternative water source project to ensure that if another flood like the one in 2015 ever happened again customers wouldn’t lose access to clean running water. As of Tuesday, Shealy said the project is in the public notice period.
“That environmental assessment has been complete by FEMA is actually out on public notice right now so folks can go to our website either the city’s flood recovery website or the Columbia water website and look at the environmental impact,” he said.
Construction for the new gates could start as soon as the end of this year.
Shealy said the embankments could be repaired in the next few years.
“The embankments project is very large civil works project that could take up to two years to complete the construction on,” he said,
He adds with the embankment and gates replaced the Columbia Canal will return to its full function.
The hope is to build it stronger than it was in 2015.