You would think that because the state owns the Santee Cooper project and because they built it, it would be a situation that you could operate it. But it's just like owning a car. You can buy the car, but you have to get a license from the state of South Carolina that authorizes you to operate it. In our particular case, even though Santee Cooper is a state owned utility, we must obtain a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that allows us to operate the hydroelectric system. That's a requirement for any non-federally owned and operated hydroelectric system in the United States.

It's been that way since 1920. The Federal Power Act put into place the Federal Power Commission, which was the forerunner to FERC. Since that time, they have been licensing hydroelectric projects. That process was much simpler in the 1920s, and has evolved into a much more complex process.

Typically, every 30 years. Initially, a typical hydroelectric license would be from 40 to 50 years. Our first license was for 50 years. (Santee Cooper acquired the license from the now defunct Columbia Railway and Navigation Co. in the mid-1930s). Our second license, or the relicensing of our project lasted 30 years, which ends in 2006. We expect to get a new license that should extend it 30 years or more.

The relicensing process involves either one of two scenarios. One is the alternative licensing process, which is the newer approach that FERC has instituted. It allows you to collaborate with the various non-governmental organizations and resource agencies that are interested in the process.

In that new process is something called a "communications protocol." It means that after you establish that communications protocol, and every time you have a formal meeting, everyone has to come together and meet. That requires a great deal of time and effort by a lot of different people and different organizations. Some of those non-governmental organizations may not have a staff sufficient to support the alternative licensing process.

The other approach is referred to as the traditional approach. The traditional approach has a more structured time schedule. In addition to that, the requirement for the environmental assessment is completed by FERC, rather than the licensee (Santee Cooper). In the alternative process, we would actually do the environmental assessment. Under the traditional process, FERC does it.

We have taken some of the better features of the alternative process and the traditional process and combined them to create what we call the "enhanced traditional process." We collaborate just like we would in an alternative process with all the resource agencies and all the non-governmental agencies. We have the benefit of a rigid structure and schedule that is associated with the traditional process.

The process consists of notifying FERC that you will file for a new license. We've done this. The second step is to identify to the public and to those interested parties how you plan to operate the hydroelectric system. We did that through an initial consultation package, which we've put together and sent out. It informs people how you plan to operate under a new license.

We plan to operate the way we've been operating. All of the input so far has indicated we've done a very good job of balancing the issues and the uses of the Santee Cooper hydroelectric project.

The third step is to get, based on input from the various groups, the field studies they may need. This will provide the additional information they need to evaluate their objectives for the project. Let's take fish passage as an example.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have federal authority over certain fish management activities, such as fish passage at dams for fish species like American shad and blueback herring.

They will use the study information to determine if the Santee Cooper project is adequately passing fish upstream and downstream of the dams according to their objectives. If they believe additional fish passage facilities are necessary, they can actually "prescribe" that additional facilities be built by Santee Cooper and its ratepayers.

We're now in the phase of doing actual studies. That has occurred this year and will occur next year.

They primarily deal with the evaluation of anadromous fish. These fish live in the ocean but must come upstream to spawn and then go back to saltwater. Right now, we're doing studies associated with how anadromous fish are utilizing the Santee River subsequent to the construction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's Rediversion Project. The Corps has added additional flows down there which, in turn, attract additional fish.

How those fish are responding to that flow and whether they want to come through the Rediversion Project or not is information the resource agencies would like to know or have more information about. The Rediversion Project, however, is not part of the license, so it makes things a little more complicated. The questions are: Do those fish go up into that area. Do they want to go up the channel toward the Spillway (at the Santee Dam) and what are those fish doing up there?

There are a lot of studies about anadromous fish in the Cooper River as well. Particularly, there is a concern for endangered species such as the short-nosed sturgeon or species such as the American sturgeon. It's a prehistoric fish that was fished for many years for its roe and was fished out.

Some of the other studies we're working on are concerned with lake elevations and how the lakes are managed. We've done a modeling study of the lake system to evaluate how inflows and outflows and various generation scenarios impact lake elevations, generation, and flows on the rivers (Santee and Cooper). We're also dealing closely with the resource agencies about aquatic vegetation, which is a big issue on our lake system.

Some people say we have too little and other people in the past have said we have too much. The big concern, of course, is hydrilla. That noxious aquatic weed was not found in our lakes until the early 1980s. By the mid-1990s it covered more than 40,000 acres of our 156,000-acre lake system.

There are many sportsmen, and particularly duck hunters, who grew accustomed to the attraction that this weed created for certain species of waterfowl. We have been very successful through the introduction of sterile grass carp in reducing hydrilla and all of the problems that it has created as a non-native vegetation. Unfortunately, when you deal with such a large-scale problem there are other impacts such as the loss of some beneficial native vegetation.

What's the proper balance? That's one of the things we have to determine. Fortunately, we have developed a long-term agreement with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to manage aquatic vegetation in the lakes so that we can hopefully achieve that balance.

Other issues we deal with aren't necessarily study issues. They include shoreline management, history and archeological issues associated with our lakes, wildlife habitat, unique biological features, and endangered species issues for other types of species other than fish (bald eagles and certain types of plants). Their habitat has to be identified so that we can have it recorded, evaluated and monitored. All of that is part of the process.

Santee Cooper would like to hear from anyone who has areas of interest within our lake system. The best way to get involved is through one of the non-governmental organizations. There are several interest groups around the lakes. Some deal with commercial issues around our lakes and others deal with fishery and waterfowl related issues.

Santee Cooper believes we have done and will continue to do a good job of balancing the multiple uses of the lakes. That is our objective. Our objective is very simple: to maintain the balance of the multiple uses of the project.

The relicensing process requires that FERC give consideration to generation and non-generation concerns. Non-generation concerns include recreation, navigation, fisheries and other types of uses not associated with hydroelectric generation.

The story on shoreline management is that we anticipate the amount of shoreline undeveloped will generally remain the same for the course of the next license. We have no intentions to develop any additional lands. We think it is important as a resource to maintain the natural areas that have been identified. The existing development will stay. There may be additional access for the public.

Under the best scenario, it would have been March 2006 but because of the complexity of both the project and the process, relicensing of large hydro projects like Santee Cooper usually take longer than the time allotted. We submitted the actual license application in March 2004 and we continue to work closely with the FERC and other stakeholders to obtain a long term license agreement. Since March, 2006, we have been operating the project under an annual renewal of our existing license.  It is our hope that we'll soon have a new license under which we can operate.

Santee Cooper named a full-time FERC relicensing manager in the fall of 2000 and has been working on it ever since. Santee Cooper has been involved in the relicensing process since 1998.