Our Water

Spartanburg Water has been an active member for more than 20 years of the Partnership for Safe Water, a national volunteer initiative developed by the EPA and other leading water organizations representing water suppliers striving to provide their communities with drinking water quality that surpasses the required federal standards. The program's ultimate goal is to maximize public health protection.

In 2025, R.B. Simms Drinking Water Treatment Facility received the AWWA Directors Award for Water Treatment for the 25th year, for calendar year 2024.The Directors Award recognizes systems that have completed a successful review in the Partnership's Self-Assessment and Peer Review Phase, a phase in which utilities examine the capabilities of their treatment plant operation and administration and then create a plan for implementing improvements and maintaining compliance with the voluntary goals of the Partnership. In 2025, our Landrum Water Treatment Facility was awarded the AWWA Directors Award for the 18th year, for calendar year 2024.

Maintaining Directors Award status for multiple years demonstrates our philosophy of constant vigilance to improve water quality and area optimization of our water treatment assets.

Developed by the EPA and other water organizations striving to provide optimum quality drinking water, the Partnership currently includes 250 water utilities, collectively serving more than 89 million people. This represents approximately 40 percent of the U.S. population served by surface water systems. Spartanburg Water's ongoing participation in the program includes a rigorous review of treatment practices developed by national experts, and also includes a four-step, self-assessment and peer review process.

Lake Bowen, formed by the South Pacolet River and its tributaries, flows into Municipal Reservoir #1. The entire watershed for these reservoirs lie in Spartanburg and Eastern Greenville Counties. The R.B. Simms Water Treatment Facility treats the water from these water supply reservoirs.

The North Pacolet River and its tributaries combine with the Lake Bowen/Reservoir #1 system to form Lake Blalock. The watershed for this lake lies in South Carolina and North Carolina. The Myles W. Whitlock, Jr. Water Treatment Facility is designed to treat water from Lake Blalock.

Our Landrum Water Treatment Facility uses surface water from Hogback Creek, located near the top of Hogback Mountain, as well Vaughn's Creek, located near Lake Lanier. The source water is located in Greenville county within the Broad River Basin. The system serves a primary population of 4,300 people.

Spartanburg Water currently fluoridates our finished drinking water to achieve PHS’s recommended level of 0.70ppm (parts per million). The current EPA enforceable drinking water standard for fluoridation is 4.0 ppm, more than five-and-a-half times our current target level. The EPA’s nonenforceable secondary standard for fluoridation is 2.0 PPM, which is the recommended level to protect children against the tooth discoloration and/or pitting that can be caused by excess fluoride exposure. Spartanburg Water fluoridates at optimum recommended levels and we have never had an exceedance of either the EPA’s 4.0 (primary) or 2.0 (secondary) standards.

Read the February 2025 Spartanburg Water Position Statement from our CEO, Guy Boyle

Spartanburg Water System is proud to announce the completion of our Lead Service Line Inventory. By utilizing a predictive approach combined with the inspection of nearly 1,600 randomly selected service lines throughout the system (including those in Landrum) no lead service lines were located. Please follow the link below to view the inventory. Simply type your address or Spartanburg Water account number into the search bar and our system will show the results of the inventory at your location.

To see an updated map of our Lead Service Line Inventory, go to Lead Service Line Inventory.

If you have any additional questions about the Lead Service Line Inventory please contact Alexander Grubbs at agrubbs@spartanburgwater.org.

Geosmin and MIB are the taste and odor causing agents in our watershed.

Current level of geosmin

Current level of MIB

These levels are updated weekly.