COLUMBIA, S.C. -- When a power company built a dam on the Georgia-South Carolina border nearly a century ago, the work covered a 4-mile stretch of the lower Chattooga River with so much water that the river's rocky channel vanished.
The dam, however, isn't a major power source these days, and a conflict is brewing over whether to tear down the expansive structure that has blocked the lower part of an acclaimed Southern river from flowing freely.
In late November, seven organizations filed paperwork with the federal government that they hope will eventually persuade Georgia Power Co. to tear down the dam at Lake Tugalo northwest of Clemson in Oconee County.
They are trying to stop Georgia Power from conducting a major upgrade to the Tugalo dam, arguing that the structure should instead be considered for removal.
The effort by environmentalists could take years, but if successful, tearing down the 160-foot tall Tugalo dam would mark one of the largest dam removal projects in the Carolinas and Georgia, they say.
Dozens of dams have been removed in the region in the past 30 years, but many have been on small streams and they are shorter than the one on the lower Chattooga.
All told, about 4 miles of the lower Chattooga would be restored, as well as several miles of the nearby Tallulah River in Georgia, according to a Nov. 24 motion filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington.
Lake Tugalo, sometimes spelled Tugaloo, would no longer exist if the dam is eventually removed.
While the Chattooga's lower section is covered by lake water, miles of river above the dam remain intact and unspoiled.
It is one of the few federally designated national wild and scenic rivers in the Carolinas and Georgia, and the only one of its kind in South Carolina. The Chattooga River's rapids are considered some of the most challenging in the Southeast, attracting paddlers from across the country.
"Deliverance," a movie based on the James Dickey novel, was filmed on the Chattooga in the 1970s. The movie was about friends who had a harrowing experience canoeing down a wild river before it was dammed. The Chattooga River extends about 60 miles through the mountains from North Carolina before flattening into Lake Tugalo.
Environmentalists say the river restoration would create whitewater rafting areas on the lower Chattooga, restoring what's believed to be a substantial gorge now covered under the water of Lake Tugalo.
Tearing down the dam also would restore valuable river habitat for important plants, some known to grow only in Georgia and South Carolina, the Nov. 24 motion says. Those include the endangered Persistent Trillium, a plant with a brilliant white flower that once was featured on a postage stamp.
In addition, getting rid of the dam would allow forests to be restored, eliminate greenhouse gases that are generated from operating the dam and save ratepayers millions of dollars for the cost of making dam repairs, environmentalists say.
Removing the dam -- completed in 1923 -- is plausible because, unlike many major lakes in the Carolinas and Georgia, virtually no one lives on Lake Tugalo, they say.
"The Chattooga River is a treasure for the country -- and this is impounding that last section of the river," said Peter Raabe, southeastern basin director for American Rivers. "Now, we have this opportunity to restore this gem of the Southeast."
Environmental groups filing the motion include two of the nation's most prominent river advocacy groups, American Whitewater and American Rivers, as well as Upstate Forever of South Carolina, the Georgia Canoeing Association, Naturaland Trust of Greenville and the Chattooga Conservancy, which operates in both states.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, a non-profit legal service headquartered in Virginia, is handling proceedings before the FERC.
Nicole Hayler, director of the Chattooga Conservancy, and Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Frank Holleman said getting rid of the dam is worth considering.
"We think there's a whole other set of rapids underneath the lake and conceivably world class rapids," Hayler said, noting that studies are still ongoing. Sediment has buried much of the old river bottom through the years.
Records show that Georgia Power plans to spend at least $24 million upgrading the dam at Lake Tugalo. The work would extend the life of the Tugalo powerhouse by four decades, according to the environmental groups' FERC filing.
The environmentalists' call to study removing the dam arose after Georgia Power filed a request with the FERC to amend its current operating license for the structure.
A recent Federal Register notice says the company wants to replace and upgrade four generating units at the Tugalo powerhouse. Work proposed by Georgia Power at the dam includes upgrading four turbines; refurbishing generators; and replacing control room panels and spillway gates, the notice says.
Georgia Power did not directly respond to questions about the need for the Tugalo dam, except to say that it is part of a power generation mix. In an email, the company said it operates 19 hydroelectric dams and some of "these projects continue to deliver value for Georgia Power customers."
The company also said it may remove two dams in other parts of Georgia. The Riverview and Langdale dams are being decommissioned, the company said.
"Lake Tugalo dam is one of a network of hydro-electric facilities maintained and operated by Southern Company and Georgia Power as part of a diverse generation mix to serve millions of customers across the state," the company said in the email. "As a regulated utility, Georgia Power works to regularly evaluate the state's current and future energy needs and realign our generation resources to ensure safe, clean, reliable and affordable power, while also protecting and preserving our state's natural resources."
Critics say work on the dam isn't needed and the relatively small amount of power produced could be replaced with solar farms. They also note that Georgia Power is building two new nuclear plants that will provide large amounts of energy.
The lower Chattooga River dam produced power for about 12,500 homes in 2020, or about 1 percent of all the company's total power generation, according to American Rivers.
Environmentalists say upgrading the dam now will only strengthen the power company's case when it formally seeks a new 40-year operating license in 2031. It would be harder for the federal government to turn down a new license if the company has spent tens of millions of dollars upgrading the dam, Holleman and Raabe said.
The Southern Environmental Law Center's motion to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asks the agency to require a detailed environmental study of the dam repair plan and to "fully consider decommissioning the dam" when the existing license expires in 2036.
Dam removal efforts like the one at Lake Tugalo can take years to accomplish, but the initiative has picked up steam across the country as environmental and outdoor recreation groups push to tear down dams no longer considered necessary to generate power or for other purposes.
In many cases, the idea is to restore the natural flow of rivers for recreation and to improve wildlife habitat.
American Rivers, which has 35,000 members nationally, says 69 dams were removed across the country in 2020.
In the Carolinas and Georgia since 1990, about 60 dams have been removed, many of them on creeks and rivers smaller than the Chattooga, according to American Rivers' database of dam removals.
Those include, for instance, a small dam on Congaree Creek near Columbia in 2019 and one at Burson Lake in Oconee County, SC in 2020, the environmental group's data base shows.
Holleman, the Southern Environmental Law Center attorney, said he hopes the lower Chattooga dam will make the list of removed dams.
"The dam serves very little purpose now," he said. "Removing it would be an incredible event for natural resources and recreation across the entire country."