WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Hyde County, North Carolina

Two things here need attention.

Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Hyde County cover 346 named waterways across 41 sub-watersheds, and 3 active water systems serving about 6,256 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

346waterways on record
1not considered safe for swimming
99under fish-consumption advisories
4never assessed at all
3water systems
0with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

Needs attention

Pungo River 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
ENTEROCOCCUS
Listed cause
COPPER

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

Needs attention

Fish from 99 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
PATHOGENS

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

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
Pungo RiverNot considered safeMeets the standardENTEROCOCCUS, COPPER
Alligator GutNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Alligator RiverMeets the standardNot assessedCOPPER
Austin Creek (Clubhouse Creek)Not assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Becky Creek (Becky Branch)Not assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Berrys BayNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Bradley CreekNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Cedar CreekNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Deep CreekNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Far CreekNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Germantown BayNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS
Golden CreekNot assessedNot considered safePATHOGENS

Showing 12 of 346 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
Hyde County Water System5,25600
Ocracoke Sanitary District90000
Dot-Hatteras Ferry South Dock10000

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 Hyde 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: 3 active water systems serve Hyde County. None 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 Hyde County are not considered safe for swimming?

State assessments under the Clean Water Act list Pungo River as not supporting recreation. That is an official determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

336 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 Hyde County report