Santee River

The Santee River is a river in South Carolina in the United States, 143 miles (230 km) long. The Santee and its tributaries provide the principal drainage for the coastal areas of southeastern South Carolina and navigation for the central coastal plain of South Carolina, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean approximately 440 miles (708 km) from its farthest headwater on the Catawba River in North Carolina. The Santee River is the second largest river on the eastern coast of the United States, second only to the Susquehanna River in drainage area and flow. Much of the upper river is impounded by the expansive, horn-shaped Lake Marion reservoir, formed by the 8-mile (13 km)-long Santee Dam. It was built during the Great Depression of the 1930s as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project to provide a major source of hydroelectric power for the state of South Carolina.

The Santee is formed in central South Carolina 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Columbia by the confluence of the Wateree and Congaree rivers. It flows southeast for 5 miles (8 km) before entering the northwest corner of Lake Marion, which stretches in a long wide arc to the southeast for approximately 30 miles (48 km) to Santee Dam. A navigable diversion canal first built in the 1970s at the southern tip of the lake connects to Lake Moultrie, a reservoir on the nearby Cooper River. The modern canal is operated by Santee Cooper as part of the larger hydroelectric project on both rivers. The dam was finished in 1941.

Downstream from the reservoir it flows east, then southeast, forming the northeast boundary of Francis Marion National Forest. Approximately 10 miles (16 km) from its mouth it bifurcates into two channels, called the North Santee and South Santee, that flow parallel and separated by approximately 2 miles (3 km), creating Cedar Island. The two channels reach the ocean at Santee Point, approximately 15 miles (24 km) south of Georgetown, and not far from the mouth of the Pee Dee River.

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