WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Henderson County, North Carolina

One thing here needs attention.

Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Henderson County cover 103 named waterways across 28 sub-watersheds, and 106 active water systems serving about 94,234 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

103waterways on record
6not considered safe for swimming
0under fish-consumption advisories
17never assessed at all
106water systems
13with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

Needs attention

Cane 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
BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Listed cause
FECAL COLIFORM

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

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
Cane CreekNot considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
S-004Not considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES, ESCHERICHIA COLI (E. COLI)
Bat ForkNot assessedNot assessedFISH BIOASSESSMENTS
Boylston CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Brandy BranchNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
BROAD RIVERMeets the standardNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Clear CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FISH BIOASSESSMENTS
Davidson RiverMeets the standardMeets the standardFISH PASSAGE BARRIER, FLOW REGIME MODIFICATION
Devils ForkNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
FRENCH BROAD RIVERNot considered safeMeets the standardFECAL COLIFORM
Hominy CreekNot considered safeNot assessedFECAL COLIFORM
Mud CreekMeets the standardNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FISH BIOASSESSMENTS

Showing 12 of 103 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 Hendersonville79,27800
Grace Community Church1,00000
Fletcher Academy Inc79000
High Vista Estates77500
Camp Blue Star60000
Camp Greystone50000
Fox Ridge S/d45700
Camp Highlander40000
Camp Falling Creek32500
Camp Ton A Wandah30000
Cinnamon Woods28811
Camp Green Cove27500

Showing the 12 largest of 106 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

  • 17 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 Henderson 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: 106 active water systems serve Henderson County. 13 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 Henderson County are not considered safe for swimming?

State assessments under the Clean Water Act list Cane Creek, S-004, FRENCH BROAD RIVER, Hominy Creek, RS-13125 and 1 more as not supporting recreation. That is an official determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

88 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 Henderson County report