WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Perquimans County, North Carolina

One thing here needs attention.

Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Perquimans County cover 19 named waterways across 17 sub-watersheds, and 4 active water systems serving about 15,011 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

19waterways on record
0not considered safe for swimming
2under fish-consumption advisories
2never assessed at all
4water systems
3with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

Needs attention

Fish from 2 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
DIOXIN IN FISH TISSUE
Listed cause
COPPER
Listed cause
PH, HIGH

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

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
ALBEMARLE SOUNDMeets the standardNot considered safeDIOXIN IN FISH TISSUE, COPPER
Burnt Mill CreekNot assessedNot assessed
Halls CreekNot assessedMeets the standard
Little RiverMeets the standardNot assessed
Perquimans RiverNot assessedNot assessed
Yeopim RiverNot assessedMeets the standard
Edenton BayMeets the standardNot considered safeDIOXIN IN FISH TISSUE
Pasquotank RiverMeets the standardMeets the standardCOPPER, DISSOLVED OXYGEN
Alligator RiverNot assessedMeets the standard
Areneuse CreekNot assessedNot assessed
Bennetts Creek (Merchants Millpond)Not assessedNot assessed
Bull BayMeets the standardNot assessed

Showing 12 of 19 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
Perquimans County Water System12,32011
Hertford Water System2,14511
Harvey Point Defense Activity35500
Minzie`s Creek Sanitary District19111

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

  • 2 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 Perquimans 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: 4 active water systems serve Perquimans County. 3 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 Perquimans County are not considered safe for swimming?

None of the 8 waterways assessed for recreation is listed as failing.

11 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 Perquimans County report