Two things could not be determined from the record.
Public records for Bertie County cover 37 named waterways across 45 sub-watersheds, and 7 active water systems serving about 20,160 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.
37waterways on record
0not considered safe for swimming
2under fish-consumption advisories
4never assessed at all
7water systems
1with an unresolved health-based violation
What the records flag
Needs attention
Fish from 2 nearby waterways are under consumption advisories
The state has determined this water doesn't meet standards for eating the fish caught in it. It's close to you, but your water doesn't flow from it.
Listed cause
DIOXIN IN FISH TISSUE
Listed cause
COPPER
Listed cause
PH, HIGH
Official determination, waterway near you · U.S. EPA / state agency — ATTAINS assessed waters
Showing 12 of 37 waterways on record — the full report has all of them. "Not considered safe" is a state determination under the Clean Water Act, not a measurement taken today. "Not assessed" means unknown — never clean.
Health-based violations are shown alone — administrative (paperwork) records are counted separately and never added in, because most violation records are paperwork.
What the record doesn’t establish
4 nearby waterways have never been assessed — their condition is unknown.
Whether your home's own plumbing adds lead or copper — no dataset covers indoor pipes.
Common questions
Is tap water safe to drink in Bertie County?
No public dataset can establish that any tap is safe or unsafe — records have gaps, lag by up to a quarter, and say nothing about a building's own plumbing or private wells.
What the records do show: 7 active water systems serve Bertie County. 1 of them currently has an unresolved health-based violation on record. Health-based violations are counted separately from paperwork violations, which make up most records.
Which waterways in Bertie County are not considered safe for swimming?
None of the 9 waterways assessed for recreation is listed as failing.
28 of the county's waterways on record have never been assessed for swimming — their condition is unknown.
How current is this data?
Datasets refresh on their agencies' cycles — EPA drinking-water records quarterly, state waterway assessments roughly every two years. The sources table on this page lists the version and retrieval date of every dataset used.
Records lag their agencies' refresh cycles — a recent change may not appear yet. Absence from a dataset is absence of a record, never evidence that water is clean.
Go deeper
The interactive report adds the map, monitoring-station samples, permitted operations in connected watersheds, and plain-language explanations of every term.