Lake Murray Shoreline Rules

Where your garden actually stops

Dominion Energy owns the land below the 360-foot contour along the vast majority of the shoreline, and manages it under the shoreline management plan attached to its federal licence for the Saluda Hydroelectric Project. In places it also owns a strip above the 360, called fringeland. Everything below applies to that ground, and in some cases to a vegetative buffer zone above it. Whether your lot qualifies for a dock at all is a separate question.

Things people build anyway, and should not

The handbook lists prohibited structures and activities below the 360 and in the vegetative buffer. These are the ones that catch homeowners:

• Patios, stone firepits and brick barbecues
• Walking paths of stone, brick, pavers or gravel
• Boathouses, storage buildings, shelters and playhouses
• Swimming pools and boat storage
• Fences of any kind
• Septic tanks and drain fields
• Seawalls and retaining walls below the 360
• Sand or earth fill of any sort
• Stockpiled construction material
• Roofs or covers over boat lifts
• Upland water features that drain into the lake
• Herbicide spraying in or near the water

The firepit and the paver path are the two I see most. They feel like landscaping rather than construction, they are the sort of thing a good contractor will happily build for you, and they are on the list. Nobody objects until somebody objects, and then it is your problem rather than the contractor’s.

Also on the list, and less obvious: no all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, golf carts or off-road vehicles below the 360 unless Lake Management has specifically authorised it. And dock lighting has to be aimed downward rather than out across the water.

The trees are not yours to clear

Vegetation below the 360 is treated as habitat, not scenery, and you must contact Lake Management before removing any of it. What limited brushing permits generally allow is the removal of trees and brush three inches in diameter and smaller. Larger trees may be limbed from the ground up to about twelve feet, which is usually enough to open a view without taking anything down.

Clearing without permission is the expensive mistake on this page. It can cancel your dock permit and any other permit on the property, it requires you to replant, and where merchantable timber has been taken off Dominion land the reimbursement can be assessed at triple stumpage. A better view is not worth losing the dock over, and I have seen people manage exactly that.

Erosion control, and the 500-foot limit

Riprap at and below the 360 is generally permitted where Dominion finds it aesthetically acceptable, and all materials need approval first. Concrete blocks, bricks and general building rubble are not acceptable as riprap, however tidily they are stacked. Shoreline stabilisation is capped at 500 linear feet per permit, per year, so a long frontage may be a multi-season job rather than one project.

Seawalls and retaining walls are permitted only where they sit on or inside the 360-foot line. Filling with earth below the 360 is prohibited outright — you may protect the shoreline you have, but you may not quietly extend it.

Dredging is a winter job, and only silt

If a cove has silted up in front of a dock, excavation is possible but tightly bounded. Only siltation may be removed and the original lake bed must not be disturbed. Work is allowed only between 1 October and 31 January, and permits expire on 31 January regardless of when they were issued. Nothing may be excavated while the site is under water, the maximum slope is four to one, and displaced soil has to go above the 360 and be stabilised and seeded.

Up to 150 cubic yards can be handled by Dominion Lake Management. Anything larger goes to the US Army Corps of Engineers and state agencies, which is a different order of timeline. If depth at the dock matters to you, this is a question for before you buy, not after.

Two things you can do that people do not know about

Draw water for irrigation. An intake for irrigating a single-family property is permitted, with the pump above the 360 and the intake pipe two inches or smaller, buried or anchored, screened, and not placed in an environmentally sensitive area. Usefully, a lot that is next to the 360 but does not qualify for a dock can still be considered for a water removal permit. If a dock is off the table, this at least is not.

Run a geothermal loop into the lake. Residential closed-loop systems are permitted, sited below the 345-foot contour and within 150 feet of the 360, in front of your own property, with water as the only medium in the supply piping. For the right house that is a serious running-cost saving, and hardly anybody asks.

What enforcement actually looks like

It is not a warning followed by nothing. Dominion sends a letter by certified mail identifying the violation and setting a deadline. If the deadline passes, Lake Management removes the structure or has it removed, and the property owner pays the cost plus an enforcement fee. At the same time every permit issued on that property is cancelled, and no new permit will be issued until the bill is paid. That last part is what hurts, because it includes the dock permit.

Which is why, when I am selling a lake house, I would far rather find the unpermitted firepit myself and deal with it than have a buyer’s inspector find it in week three.