WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Cabarrus County, North Carolina

Two things here need attention.

Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Cabarrus County cover 66 named waterways across 21 sub-watersheds, and 68 active water systems serving about 154,845 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

66waterways on record
7not considered safe for swimming
6under fish-consumption advisories
7never assessed at all
68water systems
9with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

Needs attention

Clear Creek is not considered safe for swimming

A state determination under the Clean Water Act. This is one of several assessed waterways in the area you searched — search a street address to see which waters connect to you.

Listed cause
TURBIDITY
Listed cause
FECAL COLIFORM

Official determination, waterway near you · U.S. EPA / state agency — ATTAINS assessed waters

Needs attention

Fish from 6 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
PCBS - FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY
Listed cause
CHLOROPHYLL-A - AQUATIC LIFE USE SUPPORT
Listed cause
PH, HIGH

Official determination, waterway near you · U.S. EPA / state agency — ATTAINS assessed waters

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
Clear CreekNot considered safeNot assessedTURBIDITY, FECAL COLIFORM
Goose CreekNot considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
McKee CreekNot considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
Rocky RiverNot considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
Second Creek Arm of High Rock LakeNot assessedNot considered safePCBS - FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY, CHLOROPHYLL-A - AQUATIC LIFE USE SUPPORT
Back CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Big Bear CreekNot assessedNot assessedFISH BIOASSESSMENTS
Caldwell CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Clarke CreekNot assessedNot assessedFISH BIOASSESSMENTS
Clarks CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Coddle CreekOn record, no conclusionNot assessedFISH BIOASSESSMENTS, TURBIDITY
Coddle Creek, including water supply reservoir for Concord)Not assessedNot assessedPH, HIGH

Showing 12 of 66 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.

Drinking water systems

SystemServesHealth-based violations since 2021Without recorded resolution
City of Concord120,54800
Town of Harrisburg20,54900
Shiloh Church Road S/d3,10200
Town of Mount Pleasant1,7862222
Whitehurst MHP68811
Zemosa Acres Water System65000
Stallings Glen S/d54400
Silver Maples Estates MHP46300
Fieldstone/cold Springs Dev42400
Cold Springs Umc40000
Providence Manor S/d37900
Rha Health Services, LLC36300

Showing the 12 largest of 68 active systems serving the county. 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

  • 7 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 Cabarrus 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: 68 active water systems serve Cabarrus County. 9 of them currently have an unresolved health-based violation on record. Health-based violations are counted separately from paperwork violations, which make up most records.

Which waterways in Cabarrus County are not considered safe for swimming?

State assessments under the Clean Water Act list Clear Creek, Goose Creek, McKee Creek, Rocky River, CW-064 and 2 more as not supporting recreation. That is an official determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

44 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.

Sources

DatasetAgency versionRetrieved
EPA/state ATTAINS waterway assessmentsATTAINS_Assessment ArcGIS snapshot (gispub.epa.gov)2026-08-15
ATTAINS waterway geometryATTAINS_Assessment ArcGIS lines + areas (gispub.epa.gov)2026-08-16
Census TIGER county boundariesCensus TIGERweb Counties (current vintage)2026-08-16
NC DEQ PFAS monitoringNC DEQ DWR EQuIS export, samples through 2025-07-292026-08-17
Census TIGER place boundariesCensus TIGERweb Places (Incorporated + CDP, current vintage)2026-08-16
EPA water system service areasEPA PWS Service Areas v3 (hosted layer, item 80c6912ef14f46e480f5afd807767b4b)2026-08-15
EPA Safe Drinking Water Act compliance recordsECHO SDWA quarterly bulk download2026-08-16
EPA standards & benchmarks2026-08 curation2026-08-15
EPA UCMR5 PFAS monitoringUCMR5 occurrence data (collections through 2025-12-10)2026-08-15
USGS watershed boundariesUSGS WBD via National Map MapServer2026-08-15

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.

See the full Cabarrus County report