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CCU partners with Georgetown to save historic harbor

CCU partners with Georgetown to save historic harbor (WPDE)

Posted on May 2, 2019

GEORGETOWN, S.C. (WPDE) — A comeback in Georgetown County is what both city and county leaders are hoping to see happen with the Georgetown Harbor, and they’re getting help from Coastal Carolina students.

For the last six months, students from CCU have been working with county leaders and the Army Corps of Engineers to figure out exactly what needs to happen in order for the harbor to be booming again as it once was in the 1900s.

“We’re taking science and engineering, combining it to regenerate the current within the inner harbor to flush the silting away,” said Georgetown Mayor Brendon Barber.

Excess silt is standing in the way of the harbor living up to its potential.

“The harbor is filling up very rapidly. Since Georgetown was an important harbor here along the east coast in the 1900s, they had to dredge it a little bit,” said Coastal Marine Systems Science Professor Dr. Till Hanebuth

Hanebuth says dredging costs the tax payer up to $8 million every other year.

In the 1950s, the Army Corps of Engineers created a shortcut near the inner harbor for easier access.

“In 1950, they wanted to get better access to the main dock for the steel mill, the paper-mill, the coal power plant and so on,” said Hanebuth.

However, the shortcut disconnected the inner harbor from the natural strong flow of the river and with no flow in the harbor, silt gets trapped.

“If we find a better, cheaper and more sustainable solution to keep the harbor free of silt, better and cheaper and more lasting than dredging this will be for benefit of everyone basically working around the harbor,” said Hanebuth.

Hanebuth and his team of graduate students mapped the harbor and put sensors out to measure water levels, silt and other components to help come up with a solution to get the harbor back up and running and Mayor Brendon Barber says state leaders are on board.

“After talking with the governor, meeting with him face to face, he’s excited about it along with our federal delegation, Senator Graham, Senator Scott, Congressman Rice,” said Barber.

Hanebuth says coming up with a data-based foundation to resolve the harbor’s issues is the focus so the current shortcut doesn’t have to close.

Students at CCU will present their research and solutions early this fall. They hope the project will be done in the next four years.

Source: wpde.com

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