WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Pitt 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 Pitt County cover 59 named waterways across 34 sub-watersheds, and 15 active water systems serving about 172,848 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

59waterways on record
0not considered safe for swimming
0under fish-consumption advisories
13never assessed at all
15water systems
5with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

No issues on record

No failing determinations on record for Ballahack Canal

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

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
Ballahack CanalOn record, no conclusionNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Clayroot SwampNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Conetoe CreekMeets the standardNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Contentnea CreekMeets the standardMeets the standardBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Greens Mill RunNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Grindle CreekMeets the standardNot assessedPH, LOW
Johnsons Mill RunNot assessedNot assessedPH, LOW
Little Contentnea CreekOn record, no conclusionNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Swift CreekMeets the standardNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
TAR RIVER (River Segment)Not assessedNot assessedCHLOROPHYLL-A
Briery Swamp (Shepherd Millpond)Not assessedNot assessed
Cannon SwampNot assessedNot assessed

Showing 12 of 59 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
Greenville Utilities Comm103,14000
Eastern Pines Water Corp23,00011
Bell Arthur Water Corp11,48311
Town of Winterville10,46211
Town of Farmville8,88700
Town of Ayden6,36600
Stokes Regional Water Corp3,53022
Town of Grifton2,98200
Town of Bethel1,64000
Town of Fountain42711
Town of Grimesland33200
Homestead MHP No 220000

Showing the 12 largest of 15 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

  • 13 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 Pitt 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: 15 active water systems serve Pitt County. 5 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 Pitt County are not considered safe for swimming?

None of the 21 waterways assessed for recreation is listed as failing.

38 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 Pitt County report