WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Martin County, North Carolina

Nothing here is flagged for attention.

That covers what has been measured and assessed — not what hasn't. Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Martin County cover 42 named waterways across 30 sub-watersheds, and 21 active water systems serving about 17,590 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

42waterways on record
0not considered safe for swimming
0under fish-consumption advisories
4never assessed at all
21water systems
4with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

No issues on record

No failing determinations on record for Conetoe Creek

Official state determination · U.S. EPA / state agency — ATTAINS assessed waters

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
Conetoe CreekMeets the standardNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Grindle CreekMeets the standardNot assessedPH, LOW
Conaby CreekNot assessedMeets the standard
Conoho CreekNot assessedNot assessed
Crisp CreekNot assessedNot assessed
Deep CreekMeets the standardNot assessed
Deep Run SwampNot assessedNot assessed
Flat SwampOn record, no conclusionNot assessed
Hardison Mill CreekNot assessedNot assessed
Haw BranchNot assessedMeets the standard
Horsepen SwampNot assessedNot assessed
Kehukee Swamp (White Millpond)Not assessedNot assessed

Showing 12 of 42 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 Williamston7,65011
Martin Co Water & Sewer Dist 22,74611
Martin Co Water & Sewer Dist I2,24511
Town of Robersonville1,70011
Domtar Paper Company - Pulp & Paper45000
Green Acres Campground44500
Town of Jamesville44000
Town of Everetts41900
Town of Hamilton40800
Town of Parmele26200
Weyerhaeuser-Southern Lumber18500
Cedar Branch Baptist Church17500

Showing the 12 largest of 21 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

  • 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 Martin 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: 21 active water systems serve Martin County. 4 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 Martin County are not considered safe for swimming?

None of the 13 waterways assessed for recreation is listed as failing.

29 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 Martin County report