By JOHN GREGO
Guest columnist
South Carolina's only national park, Congaree National Park, is finally a reality. But hard work is still needed to promote and enhance this natural treasure for its long-term benefits to our community. Right now, the state Transportation Department has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redesign the U.S. 601 corridor as it crosses the Congaree River floodplain from Lower Richland County to Calhoun County.
The current U.S. 601 roadway and bridges in this area would never be considered national park-caliber. The long embankments, originally built by filling wetlands in the 1940s, block the natural movement of floodwaters across the Congaree floodplain. Drivers on U.S. 601 do not see a natural floodplain forest, but bridge embankments, two sets of power lines and a 250-foot wide clear-cut.
Unfortunately, our highway department not only wants to leave the embankments in place, but, along one stretch, it plans to build a new and even larger embankment. In order to accommodate changes in the roadway alignment, DOT is also planning to displace additional forests and wetlands, and to that end, DOT has just applied to the Army Corps of Engineers and DHEC to fill additional wetlands within Congaree National Park's authorized boundary.
In other areas of our state DOT has taken care to bridge entire 100-year floodplains, and this section of U.S. 601 could easily be built on supports in order to similarly protect the Congaree floodplain.
Congaree National Park's mission includes not only maintaining, but also restoring natural resources within the broader ecosystem of the Congaree watershed, and the U.S. 601 corridor redesign represents just such an opportunity. We must work as a community to realize the long-term value of our national park designation and resources by ensuring that these problems are addressed now, during the design phase.
I urge fellow citizens to join me in speaking out, to convince DOT, DHEC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to eliminate the fill, and to completely bridge the Congaree floodplain. We must do this for future of our national park and the inevitable economic development of its surrounding communities.
Mr. Grego is president of Friends of Congaree Swamp, www. friendsofcongaree.org.
return to bridge page
Last modified:
May 11, 2008 by Edward Kujawski
(ed@kujawski.org)
Print View |
Normal View