Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
inclusion of the Chattooga in the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act because, he feared, “too
often South Carolina does not have a voice in matters of this sort simply because there is
no organized group in this area that has any interest in such things and we let matters of
this sort go by default.” 20 Brown, Eaton, and Wyche recognized that the Chattooga, unlike
the downstream Savannah River, where two hydroelectric dams had come online between
1954 and 1962, could remain wild and dam-free. The unimproved Chattooga's scenic at-
tributes, exemplary whitewater, and lack of development perfectly fit the specifications of
the national wild, scenic, and recreational rivers policy promoted by the Craighead brothers
in the 1950s.
The Chattooga River's 1968 designation as a study river fits well within the larger na-
tional process that produced the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. River advocate Tim Palmer
has written extensively about the U.S. river and conservation movement and how national
dam planning and construction initiated in the 1920s slowed during the Great Depression
only to resume with intensity in the 1950s. These public water development programs typ-
ically placed secondary emphasis on recreation, water quality, and the free-flowing rivers
Eaton and Wyche valued. The existing wild and scenic river narrative also follows wil-
derness crusaders who were against dams and “for a river,” as the famous environmental-
ist and former Sierra Club executive David Brower once said. 21 In this contest, the Chat-
tooga's story closely paralleled the nation's other wild and scenic river stories. Many Sun
Belt countryside conservationists and environmentalists organized and challenged river de-
velopment at places like Trotters Shoals on the Savannah, in North Carolina's upper French
Broad River valley, and along the New River in southwestern Virginia. They all spoke on
behalf of “their” river or rallied to protect unique landscapes. Sun Belt Georgians and South
Carolinians who spoke for the Chattooga River in the 1960s and 1970s had much in com-
mon with other countryside conservationists and environmentalists in their own regions
and around the country.
In Georgia, two institutions established in the 1960s reveal how Sun Belt residents cul-
tivated cooperative relationships with corporate and federal agents to reshape the balance
of water and power. These countryside conservationists utilized state agencies, grassroots
initiatives, and scientific expertise to speak for a wild and scenic Chattooga River. The Ge-
orgia General Assembly established the first institution—the Georgia Natural Areas Coun-
cil—in 1966 to survey the state's rare and valuable plant and animal species, “or any other
natural features of outstanding scenic or geological value.” 22 Georgia State University eco-
logist and trout fisherman Dr. Charles Wharton drafted the council's founding legislation,
which freshman state senator and future governor Zell Miller introduced. 23 The council,
composed of eight members selected from four state agencies and four Georgia institutions
of higher learning, possessed no explicit regulatory or direct management authority over
natural resources and served primarily in an advisory capacity to the state. Robert Hanie,
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