WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Iredell County, North Carolina

Two things here need attention.

Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Iredell County cover 76 named waterways across 31 sub-watersheds, and 123 active water systems serving about 143,044 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

76waterways on record
5not considered safe for swimming
3under fish-consumption advisories
7never assessed at all
123water systems
7with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

Needs attention

Fourth 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
FISH BIOASSESSMENTS
Listed cause
FECAL COLIFORM
Listed cause
BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS

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

Needs attention

Fish from 3 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
TURBIDITY

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

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
CATAWBA RIVER (Lake Norman below elevation 760)Not assessedNot considered safePCBS - FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY, TURBIDITY
Fourth CreekNot considered safeMeets the standardFISH BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
Rocky RiverNot considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
Coddle CreekOn record, no conclusionNot assessedFISH BIOASSESSMENTS, TURBIDITY
Coddle Creek, including water supply reservoir for Concord)Not assessedNot assessedPH, HIGH
Dye Creek (Branch)Not assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
East Fork Coddle CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Hunting CreekOn record, no conclusionMeets the standardTOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS)
Second Creek (North Second Creek)On record, no conclusionNot assessedTURBIDITY, TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS)
Snow CreekNot assessedNot assessedFISH BIOASSESSMENTS
South Yadkin RiverOn record, no conclusionMeets the standardTOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS), TURBIDITY
Third CreekOn record, no conclusionNot assessedTOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS), TURBIDITY

Showing 12 of 76 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
Town of Mooresville52,50900
City of Statesville30,84311
Iredell Water Corporation27,17311
Town of Troutman9,56211
Harbour Point S/d3,90900
Diamond Head S/d1,43300
Rocky Mount Church95000
Mallard Head S/d86900
Coddle Creek Elementary School70000
Commodore Peninsula WTR System61000
Winding Forest/bells Crossing S/d58200
Shepherd School57400

Showing the 12 largest of 123 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 Iredell 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: 123 active water systems serve Iredell County. 7 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 Iredell County are not considered safe for swimming?

State assessments under the Clean Water Act list Fourth Creek, Rocky River, Grants Creek, Roaring River, UT to UT to North Deep Creek as not supporting recreation. That is an official determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

54 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 Iredell County report