About Space :
Pacolet River - Lawson's Fork
Watershed Project

The Pacolet River Watershed is the entire land area that drains to the Pacolet River, including the North and South Pacolet Rivers, and flows through Spartanburg County, supplying our drinking water. What happens within our watershed is important, and affects not only our rivers but also our quality of life. Healthy watersheds lead to cleaner water. Maintaining that health requires careful identification and management of human and natural activities that affect water.

Spartanburg Water System uses ground water from three lakes within Spartanburg County: Lake William C. Bowen, Municipal Reservoir #1, and Lake H. Taylor Blalock. The protection of buffers along our rivers and streams is paramount in order to ensure an abundant supply of good water for our future. Protecting our water at its source aids in the protection of public health and reduces the need for complex water treatments. From the shores of Lakes Bowen and Blalock to the Lawson's Fork running through downtown Spartanburg into the Pacolet River, the lakes and the rivers are a critical element of the natural infrastructure that keeps our economy strong. Future growth depends on protecting water quality.

Our watershed is important, and the Spartanburg Area Conservancy has formed a partnership with the Spartanburg Water System and the Spartanburg Community Foundation to protect it. Working with private landowners, the Spartanburg Area Conservancy aims to procure riparian buffers within the Pacolet River watershed.

By protecting and ensuring the natural integrity of the headwaters and watershed of the Pacolet River, we are guaranteeing clean drinking water for the residents of Spartanburg, and also the preservation of natural lands for future generations.

The watershed is all the land and water that drains to a particular point downstream. It's more than just a stream or a reservoir, or a river. It's the entire landscape that feeds them.

Watershed Thinking - by John Lane

When I take my students out to Glendale to teach them about watersheds I walk them out on the old rusted, steel-beamed bridge over the creek and I ask them to look around for a moment. Get oriented. What I mean by this request is for them to get oriented in space. How does it smell? Where’s the light coming from? Are there any sounds besides the water falling over the rocks? If so, what are they and where do they come from? Where is north? South? East? West? Which way is Lawson’s Fork flowing? Is that a surprise, or is it what you would expect?

We call Lawson’s Fork a creek, but some old maps call it “the Lawson’s Fork of the Pacolet River.” We think it was named in the late 18th century for an early settler who had a large grant of land near the creek’s confluence with the Pacolet River a few miles below Glendale.

Once we’re oriented I tell my students about watersheds and how the whole country is made up of rivers, creeks, runs, streams, and branches and how every square inch of dry land drains into them. I point downstream and tell them that I’ve paddle right past Glendale and five days later ended up in Columbia. I point upstream and explain how 20 miles up near Inman, in the shadow of Hogback Mountain, Lawson’s Fork begins.

I work as a teacher to make rivers real for my students. I want them to be what I call “watershed thinkers,” to be able to look at a map and think their way outward from the center line of every creek to the ridge tops defining the next drainage. I want them to drive over bridges and chart the flow of the water beneath them. I want them to conjure the natural and human history of a stream’s banks and calculate the health of its flood plains and the cost of the development along its meandering trail to the Atlantic Ocean.

I want them to have experienced a watershed’s life, both great and small. I want them to care what happens to our water, and when they graduate from college, I want them to influence law and policy that protects our watersheds.

Most of my students start out like the majority of South Carolinians today. Almost all could get in a car and drive to Charleston without a map, but few of them know which river system in our state would take them there. They know bridges ice before roads, but they know little about creeks or rivers below those bridges. They don’t think much about where the water flows through their neighborhoods or cities. They suffer inconvenience when roads jam up with traffic, but not when someone pollutes or dams a local river. South Carolina rivers and creeks are abstractions, like peace, honor, truth or beauty.

I like to think that after they’ve met Lawson’s Fork, and by extension, the Pacolet River, they see it all in a different way. They’re watershed thinkers from that moment forward, and roads, as important as they are for our busy modern way of life, take their proper place as secondary systems in the primary web of our watersheds. Aldo Leopold talked about how important it is for people to “think like a mountain.” I want my students to think like rivers.

Bio - Every September Wofford College English professor John Lane teaches a “Water and Culture” learning community with biologist Ellen Goldey. The watershed of the Pacolet River is one of their primary learning landscapes.

What Individuals Can Do:
1. Keep Stormwater Clean - Storm drains don't go to a treatment plant- they discharge directly to the closest stream. Keep motor oil, pesticides, and other toxic substances out of storm drains.
2. Minimize What You Fertilize - A "less is more" approach to fertilizers keeps nutrients out of our streams- and builds a healthier lawn. Use only as much fertilizer as a soil test indicates you need.
3. Scoop the Poop - Pet waste left out in yards washes away when it rains, and is a major contributor to bacteria problems in local streams. Protect our streams by properly disposing of pet waste.
4. Let It Grow - Lakes and streams need natural vegetation along their banks to prevent erosion and protect fish habitat. Help streams stay clean and cool by letting vegetation grow.
5. Hold Back the Flood - Impervious surfaces-pavement, roofs, and the like- all cause rain to run off rapidly, making floods more severe. Minimize runoff by creating a rain garden, capturing runoff in a rain-barrel or cistern, or using pervious pavers.

What Communities Can Do:
6. Keep Dirt in its Place - Runoff from construction sites is a major contributor to sedimentation problems in streams. Strong regulatory programs, contractor education, and community awareness work to minimize erosion and sedimentation impacts.
7. Let Floodplains be Floodplains - Development in floodplains increases the risks as well as the impacts of floods by putting homes and businesses in harm's way. Communities can avoid these problems- and protect stream health- by prohibiting development in floodplains.
8. Turn Waterways into Greenways - Often, the best way to protect stream corridors is to turn them into public open space. By acquiring land along major waterways, communities can turn community liabilities into public assets in the form of parks and greenways.
9. Make Every Drop Count - Water conservation is everyone's job but communities can take the lead. Reduced irrigation, installation of water conserving fixtures in public facilities, financial incentives for conservation, and citizen education can have a real impact on water use.
10. Safeguard Against Risks - Every community has numerous businesses and activities that involve potentially dangerous chemicals, fuels, and wastes. Communities must take responsibility for safeguarding water resources by inventorying these sites, planning for their proper management, and having plans to deal with spills and releases.