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Winter 2014
feature
B
ack in 2007, Lincoln County leaders
recognized the importance of protecting
their source of drinking water for the
future, and maintaining natural space for
their citizens. They became interested in
purchasing and protecting one of the few
remaining undeveloped pieces of property
available around Little Creek Cove, on Lake
Norman, where the intake for their surface
water treatment plant is located. They
learned of a loan program administered by
the North Carolina Public Water Supply
Section (PWSS), where low interest loans to
protect drinking water quality were available
to parties who developed a state approved
Source Water Protection (SWP) Plan. Then,
as “they” say, the rest is history. With a
diligence, drive, and determination to be
reckoned with, county personnel assembled
a group of people known as their SWP
Committee, with the common mission of
making their dream of creating a permanent
preserve in their county a reality.
Over the next several months, the SWP
Committee met many times to discuss
their goals and objectives, and the result
was a comprehensive SWP Plan that was
approved by the State in March of 2008. The
Plan consisted of many recommendations
including enacting a Stormwater Ordinance,
and transferring riparian buffer rule
enforcement from the State to the County.
The most important element of the Plan,
however, was the purchase of the 115-acre
tract surrounding Little Creek as it flows
into Little Creek Cove that would eventually
become the Rock Springs Nature Preserve.
After a lengthy period of setbacks,
disappointments, and much navigation
through bureaucratic red tape, the County
received a loan check for 1.65 million
dollars from the PWSS in August of 2008.
With additional funds from the Parks and
Recreation Trust Fund and from the County,
they began construction on the Nature
Preserve in 2012. Phase I, the first eight acres
establishing an infrastructure to allow access
to the rest of the project, was completed, and
their grand opening and dedication ceremony
was held on June 7, 2014. At that time, the
Preserve consisted of a picnic shelter, hiking
trail, playground, amphitheater, outdoor
classroom, and a track trail. The Preserve
has since hosted an educational field day for
sixth graders from two schools conducted by
Lincoln County Soil and Water Conservation,
and they plan to organize many more.
Phase II of the project will begin next fall
and will consist of an additional loop to the
walking trail which will transverse the creeks
LINCOLN COUNTY SOURCE
WATER PROTECTION PLAN
By Debbie Maner
