IV-485 



the project merited the loan of federal funds. The construction 

 complex is referred to as the Santee-Cooper Project. 



In 1967 a study to check on the effectiveness of a cost-benefit 

 analysis made twenty-five years previously was undertaken. Part 

 of this analysis revealed that as a result of construction and 

 hydraulic rerouting of rivers the silting in Charleston Harbor 

 increased from what was estimated at $18,000 annually to an actual 

 cost of over $2,029,756 annually. For every year in the future 

 that the hydraulic regime of the Harbor is not restored to a more 

 suitable mode of circulation there will be a dredging cost of 

 roughly the same magnitude incurred. 



The diversion of the Santee River into the Cooper River constituted 

 a remarkable engineering experiment. The designers of the diver- 

 sion apparently foresaw no adverse effects. To the contrary, they 

 felt that the effects of the added flow would be to flush out the 

 harbor and prevent any serious pollution from every occurring. 

 As a result, the discovery that the shoaling rates were increasing 

 in the harbor apparently came as a complete surprise to everyone. 

 By 1947 the Corps of Engineers was undertaking model studies to 

 try to determine a solution to the problem. 



The finding of the Corps in their model studies at Vicksburg, 

 Mississippi, indicated that the increased flow into the harbor area 

 had created a partially-mixed estuary. That is, the ratio of 



