The Commissioners of Public Works of the City of Spartanburg issued a drought proclamation at their April 28 meeting covering the Landrum service area, asking customers in the northern Spartanburg County district to begin voluntary outdoor watering restrictions starting at 4 p.m. on April 29. The action came two days before the South Carolina Drought Response Committee escalated all 46 counties from moderate to severe drought on April 30, the toughest statewide drought designation since September 2002.
Spartanburg Water said stream flows feeding the Landrum Water Treatment Facility have dropped to levels consistent with moderate drought, while reservoirs serving the rest of the system, including Lake Bowen and Municipal Reservoir #1, remain in normal operating range. Because the Landrum plant is supplied by surface streams rather than the larger reservoirs that serve Spartanburg, Boiling Springs, and Inman, the utility activated district-only restrictions instead of a system-wide call.
Voluntary measures asked of Landrum-area customers include short showers, fixing household leaks, halting driveway and sidewalk washing, and following an address-based outdoor watering schedule between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Addresses ending in even digits or last names beginning A through M water on Thursdays and Sundays; odd digits or N through Z water on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The utility said it will keep monitoring use and stream conditions and will tighten the restrictions if flows continue to fall.
The Drought Response Committee said the trigger for the statewide severe upgrade was a precipitation deficit of more than eight inches since January 1 and more than 14 inches since September 2025, with the September-through-March window ranking as the driest in 131 years of South Carolina record. State Forester Scott Phillips lifted the statewide outdoor burn ban on May 1 because of cooler temperatures and higher humidity, but said wildfire risk will rise again on warm, dry afternoons. The committee is scheduled to reconvene on May 21 to reassess.
For Spartanburg County’s industrial water users, including BMW Manufacturing’s Plant Spartanburg, Milliken & Company’s research campus, and the food and textile employers along the I-85 corridor, the Landrum proclamation is the first formal warning that surface-water sources in the Upstate are stressed even though the major reservoirs are still at normal pool. Spartanburg Water said customers in the rest of its service territory do not need to change their usage today, but the utility encouraged voluntary conservation system-wide while the state remains under severe drought.
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Glad they're getting ahead of this. The creeks behind our place off Highway 14 are way down already.
Even/odd schedule is sensible. Wish more utilities did this before things get critical instead of after.
The 8pm-6am window matters because daytime watering loses 30%+ to evaporation in dry heat. Good guidance.
Statewide severe drought is no joke. Last time it was this broad was 2002 and we lost a lot of pasture that year.
Reservoirs are still fine but Landrum runs off streams - that's the difference people don't realize.
Burn ban lifted May 1 but with this little rain I'd still hold off on yard burning. One spark and we're done.
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