As stewards of the Santee Cooper Lakes, we are responsible for maintaining over 160,000 acres of natural paradise spanning sections of Berkeley, Calhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg and Sumter counties. The Santee Cooper Lakes not only provide recreation, but they are also an economic driving force for the state of South Carolina. For the past 20 years, numerous Santee Cooper team members have spent countless hours and extensive collaboration with other agencies to achieve a significant milestone. We achieved that milestone on Jan. 20, 2023, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a new 50-year license order for the continued operation of the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric Project (Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie).
“Qualifying for a 50-year license is a huge accomplishment,” said Michael Melchers, Santee Cooper’s FERC Administrator. “It appropriately reflects the investments Santee Cooper has made and will continue to make to ensure that the Santee Cooper Project is operated safely and in an environmentally focused, sustainable way.”
The Project’s original 50-year license was issued in 1926 to the Columbia Railway and Navigation Company, giving the company permission to construct dams and a canal to improve and develop a waterway between the Santee and Cooper rivers and generate power. Funding difficulties prevented the Columbia Railway and Navigation Company from moving forward with the Project, and when Santee Cooper was established in 1934, we assumed the license. Lakes Marion and Moultrie were constructed by the early 1940s and have been operated by Santee Cooper ever since.
Back in the mid-20th century, the criteria for obtaining a license revolved around generating power and navigation. By the time we relicensed the Project for the first time in the 1970s, the local population had dramatically increased, which shifted the focus of Santee Cooper’s second FERC license more toward environmental concerns. This second license went into effect in 1979 and expired in 2006.
Because of the extended relicensing process required to obtain a new license, Santee Cooper operated the Project on annual license extensions from 2006 until FERC issued the Project’s third license in January 2023.
The terms and conditions of the 2023 license will shift Santee Cooper’s focus once again, this time toward threatened and endangered species protection, with requirements including increased flows and expanded water quality monitoring in the lower Santee River to protect fish like shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon, American eel, blueback herring and American shad.
“Without the Santee Cooper Project diverting water from the Santee River into the Cooper River, a lot of the growth that’s happened in the Lowcountry wouldn’t have been possible,” Melchers said.
And he’s right. It is easy to see Santee Cooper as simply an electric provider, but we provide much more to the community, including clean drinking water, economic development support and many outdoor recreation opportunities and amenities.
Said Melchers, “Our lakes are a critical resource – they’re a real public health and economic driver for the whole area."