Protecting Our Drinking Water

Watershed-based planning

Upstate Forever's Clean Water team uses the latest technology and sophisticated science to address the primary causes of pollution plaguing our waterways, and to identify the best solutions. They have received national recognition for their innovative, strategic approaches to protecting drinking water quality.

A watershed is an area of land in which all the waterways drain to a single common point. Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes, with smaller ones (think of your local creek) making up larger watersheds. The largest watersheds are known as basins. In the Upstate of South Carolina, we fall within three watershed basins — the Broad, Saluda, and Savannah — each named for the common point, a river, the watershed drains to.

Maintaining clean water is a complex, dynamic process, and to do it well, must be done at the watershed level. Each watershed is different: relevant challenges and effective solutions are highly dependent upon the types of landscapes these waterways flow through. That's where our watershed-based planning work comes in.

What is a watershed-based plan?

A watershed-based plan provides a framework for restoring water quality in a watershed. The plan identifies problems in a watershed, proposes solutions, and provides a strategy for putting these plans into action.

Watershed-based planning is a collaborative process. To complete a plan, Upstate Forever works alongside many stakeholders to carefully analyze a target watershed. The goal is to identify sources of pollution, determine effective strategies to reduce pollutants, estimate the actions needed to meet water quality standards, and create a cost-effective, strategic plan to protect and improve water quality.

Learn more

319 Grants: Putting the plan into action

Once the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services approves a Watershed Based Plan, Upstate Forever works with them to secure "319 grants" that fund Best Management Practices to address pollutants of concern — i.e. bacteria, nutrients, and sediment — in watersheds with drinking water intakes.

Best management practices typically include:

Protecting sensitive lands critical to water quality
Enhancing vulnerable riparian buffers
Repairing or replacing failing septic tanks
Installing agricultural practices that reduce impacts and improve herd health.

In select watersheds, Upstate Forever can pay up to 60% of the costs for interested landowners to complete eligible projects! This funding is available on a first-come, first served basis so contact us as soon as possible if you’re interested in participating.

Currently, we have 319 grant and other funding available for projects in these watersheds:

3&20 Creek Watershed (Anderson and Pickens Counties)
Lake Keowee Watersheds (Oconee and Pickens Counties)
Tigerville-Area Subset of the Tyger River Watersheds (Greenville County)

Learn more about 319 Grants

Current Focus Areas

Last Updated October 2025

Broad River Basin

North, Middle, and South Tyger Rivers (2018)
Startex Jackson Wellford Duncan Water District (SJWD), Greer Commission of Public Works (Greer CPW), Woodruff-Roebuck Water District (WRWD), Blue Ridge Rural Water Company

North and South Pacolet Rivers (2018)
Spartanburg Water System

Saluda River Basin

Lake Greenwood (2021)
Laurens County Water and Sewer Comission, Greenwood CPW, in partnership with South Carolina Rural Water Association

Walnut Creek (2011-2014)
Greenwood CPW

Big Creek, Craven Creek, Grove Creek, and Hurricane Creek (2013)
Easley Combined Utilities, Belton-Honea Path Water

Savannah River Basin

Rocky River (2024-2026)
City of Abbeville, Starr Iva Water and Sewer District

Twelvemile Creek (2024)
Easley Central Water District, City of Pickens, in partnership with Clemson University Center for Watershed Excellence

Lake Keowee (2020)
Greenville Water, Seneca Light & Water, in partnership with the Lake Keowee Source Water Protection Team.
Learn more about project funding availability

Three and Twenty Creek (2019)
Anderson Regional Joint Water System (ARJWS), which provides drinking water to: Big Creek Water District, Broadway Water & Sewer, City of Anderson, City of Clemson, Clemson University, Hammond Water District, Homeland Park Water District, Powdersville Water District, Sandy Springs Water District, Starr-Iva Water and Sewer District, Town of Central, Town of Pendleton, Town of Williamston, and West Anderson Water District
Learn more about project funding availability

View larger map

For more information about how Upstate Forever is Protecting Our Drinking Water,

contact Katie Hottel, Clean Water & GIS Manager, at khottel@upstateforever.org.

clean water news in your inbox

Water is our planet's most precious natural resource, and Upstate Forever is working to safeguard both the quantity and quality of water in our region. Sign up to receive our Clean Water team's quarterly newsletter dedicated to clean water issues and advocacy. See past issues here

Sign me up

Protecting Our Drinking Water

Watershed-based planning

What is a watershed-based plan?

319 Grants: Putting the plan into action

Current Focus Areas

Broad River Basin

Saluda River Basin

Savannah River Basin

For more information about how Upstate Forever is Protecting Our Drinking Water,

contact Katie Hottel, Clean Water & GIS Manager, at khottel@upstateforever.org.

864.250.0500

What We Do

Take Action

News

Error Message