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"S" is for South Carolina Public Service Authority

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"S" is for South Carolina Public Service Authority. The South Carolina Public Service Authority was established by the General Assembly in 1934 with the power to provide navigation and flood control on the Santee, Congaree, and Cooper Rivers; to generate electricity; to reclaim swampland; and to reforest the state’s watersheds. The prospect of using New Deal funds to build a hydroelectric generating station in the lowcountry excited many of that area’s powerful legislators. These men envisioned a small industrial empire in the lowcountry, supplied with Santee Cooper power. They created the Public Service Authority to negotiate with and receive funds from the federal government. By the turn of the century, Santee Cooper-generated power reached all forty-six South Carolina Counties. A board of eleven members, appointed by the governor, administers the South Carolina Public Service Authority.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.