Yes, as long as the wall sits on your side of the 827 foot line. Spartanburg Water owns Lake Bowen and the shoreline up to that elevation. Below it you're on water system land, where grading isn't allowed and any wall at the water needs Spartanburg Water's permit.
Finding the 827 foot line on a Lake Bowen lot
Spartanburg Water's Lake Bowen policies put the utility's ownership at the lake bottom plus a buffer that runs from the water's edge up to contour elevation 827 feet above mean sea level. Their map draws that contour on the 1929 vertical datum (NGVD29), so ask whoever surveys the lot to mark it on that same datum.
On a lot of lake properties the strip is sloped lawn and trees that get mowed with the rest of the yard. Doesn't matter, it's water system land. Lake Bowen is a drinking water reservoir, 1,534 acres with about 33 miles of shoreline by Spartanburg Water's count, and the buffer is how they protect it.
Get the contour staked before anybody draws a wall.
Retaining walls above the line: City of Inman or Spartanburg County
Upslope of 827 is your land, and a poured concrete wall there is a normal permit job. Which permit depends on the address, and an Inman mailing address doesn't tell you. Inside city limits the City of Inman handles it, outside them it's Spartanburg County. Our concrete contractor in Inman page has the city's wall height threshold.
One buffer rule still reaches your side. Land disturbing work, construction and stormwater control included, has to take the steps needed to keep silt, runoff and debris off Spartanburg Water property and out of the lake. On a wall job that usually means silt fence downhill of the trench with the spoil pile kept uphill of it.
Why the concrete stops at 827
The policies prohibit grading or disturbing the natural soil level on the buffer. They also list what can't be built there at all, dwellings, outbuildings, pools, fencing, roads and driveways among them, and pathways can't be concrete, asphalt or anything else impervious.
Steeper than 8 percent, the buffer needs a hard pathway, which the policy defines as wooden stairs or boardwalk no wider than 4 feet, permitted before it goes in. In practice the concrete steps and landing end at the line and it's wood from there down to the dock.
Getting equipment in without touching the buffer trees
A wall job needs room to dig and set forms, sometimes for a pump truck boom too, and on a lake lot the easy way in is often across the buffer. That route's closed. Cutting, trimming or removing vegetation on Spartanburg Water property is prohibited unless it's authorized, and taking out any tree or established vegetation takes a permit no matter what shape the tree is in. If one gets issued, the owner pays for the work and replants the way the permit says.
Owners can trim low limbs up to a third of the tree's height or 20 feet, whichever's lower, trim landscaped shrubs, and keep mowing an existing lawn down to the shoreline. Blowing, raking or dumping yard debris onto the buffer or into the lake is prohibited too, and we'd treat excavated dirt and form scraps the same way. Plan access from the street side and keep staging and washout above the line.
Seawalls on Lake Bowen are lumber or block
Right at the water the policies allow treated lumber or interlocking block seawalls, with natural stone at the base of every one, put in by a licensed and insured contractor. Poured concrete isn't on that list.
Max height is 4 feet, measured from the lake bed to the top board or cap. Anything taller goes to Spartanburg County first with schematics stamped by a licensed structural engineer, and only after the county approves can Spartanburg Water permit it. Plain natural stone with no wall is allowed as well, laid so it runs 2 feet out into the lake for every foot of height.
Staff decide seawall permits case by case on bank height, what's growing there now and other conditions, so nobody's guaranteed one. Spartanburg Water's shoreline guide says to start with an on-site visit from Watershed Management staff. The application then needs the length of shoreline, every material, the wall dimensions and a planting plan of plants native to the Piedmont, plus a Tree and Vegetation permit.
Placing the concrete wall on a lot that drops to the lake
Keep the footing, the drain stone and the backfill above 827 and the whole wall stays a normal permit job on your own land. Weep holes and the drain line should let out on your ground, since everything downhill of the line is Spartanburg Water's and nothing should be piped toward the lake. On a steep drop, two shorter walls with a planted terrace between them are often easier to keep above the line than one tall one.
Before you ask for an estimate
Bring a plat or survey with the 827 contour on it. If there's already a seawall or stairs down to the dock, check that each has a current Spartanburg Water permit, because the policies say anything without one has to come out. Bought the house recently? New owners get 90 days after the sale to transfer existing permits.
Buffer questions go to the Lake Bowen Wardens' Office at 864-592-2240, the number on Spartanburg Water's land permits page. For the wall itself, our page on concrete retaining walls across the Upstate covers how we form and pour them, and the Piedmont retaining wall guide gets into footings and backfill on clay. Send the address and the survey through the estimate form below.
Sources: Spartanburg Water, Lake William C. Bowen Reservoir Policies and Procedures (January 23, 2024); Spartanburg Water, Shoreline Stabilization guide; Spartanburg Water, Land Permits; Spartanburg Water, Lake Bowen. All read October 17, 2026.
