DATE:    10/28/02
CONTACT: Barbara Speziale, (864) 656-1550;bjspz@Clemson.edu
WRITER:  Susan Bedingfield, (864) 656-3876; sbeding@clemson.edu

Clemson and Spartanburg 
are water system partners
  
  	SPARTANBURG -- Clemson Extension master gardeners and
Spartanburg Water System (SWS) have become partners to help protect 
Lake Bowen from pollution.
  	On Nov. 2, master gardeners from the Master Gardeners 
Association of the Piedmont (MGAP), and Earth Design, Inc. of Pickens, 
will install demonstration shoreline landscaping. The demonstration 
site will be in the park owned by SWS, and it will create a natural 
buffer of native plants that absorb pollutant run off.
  	"The lakeshore landscape will be used as a public demonstration 
site for landscape practices that protect water quality by reducing the
amount of fertilizers, pesticides and sediment that run off into lakes 
from the surrounding land," said Rick Huffman, president, Earth Design 
and designer of the site.
  	A natural buffer area is an expanse of protected or restored 
natural vegetation along the shoreline.  Natural buffers filter 
nutrients and pesticides from runoff; provide fish and wildlife 
habitat; stabilize shoreline and upland slopes; and preserve shoreline 
beauty by screening development from view.
  	SWS provided the site, prepared the land and will maintain the 
plants. The water system also contributed to plant and design costs. 
 	"The Spartanburg Water System is excited to be involved in this 
project. We are always ready to be proactive when it comes to 
preserving the environment," said Eddie Dearybury, reservoir manager 
for Spartanburg Water System. "We hope this project will allow home 
owners to see that there is an environmentally friendly as well as 
attractive way to develop the shoreline." 
	The rest of the project was sponsored by a grant from the 
United States Department of Agriculture to Barbara Speziale, associate 
dean, Public Service Activities and professor in the Clemson University 
Department of Biological Sciences. 
	The Lake Bowen landscape plans will be included in a 2003 
Extension publication on shoreline landscapes.
  	This project is an outgrowth of the S.C. Home-A-Syst (HAS) 
project, which is operated by Clemson Extension and funded through a 
series of grants. HAS teaches homeowners what they can do in and around 
their homes to protect water quality. 
	For more information on HAS, check out  
http://virtual.clemson.edu/groups/waterquality/homasys.htm
                                
                              END