WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Rockingham County, North Carolina

Two things here need attention.

Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Rockingham County cover 91 named waterways across 30 sub-watersheds, and 91 active water systems serving about 58,370 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

91waterways on record
14not considered safe for swimming
3under fish-consumption advisories
25never assessed at all
91water systems
18with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

Needs attention

DAN 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
TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS)
Listed cause
TURBIDITY
Listed cause
MERCURY IN FISH TISSUE

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
TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS)
Listed cause
TURBIDITY
Listed cause
MERCURY IN FISH TISSUE

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

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
DAN RIVERNot considered safeNot considered safeTOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS), TURBIDITY
Cascade CreekNot considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, ESCHERICHIA COLI (E. COLI)
Little Troublesome CreekNot considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
Reedy Fork (Hardys Mill Pond)Not considered safeNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
Smith RiverNot considered safeOn record, no conclusionBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FECAL COLIFORM
South Mayo RiverNot considered safeNot considered safeESCHERICHIA COLI (E. COLI), MERCURY IN FISH TISSUE
Belews Creek (including Belews Lake below elevation 725) (1)Not assessedNot assessedTEMPERATURE
Country Line Creek (Farmers Lake)Not assessedNot assessedTURBIDITY
DAN RIVER (North Carolina portion)Not considered safeNot assessedFECAL COLIFORM
East Branch Cascade CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
HAW RIVERMeets the standardNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, COPPER
Marrowbone CreekNot considered safeNot assessedESCHERICHIA COLI (E. COLI)

Showing 12 of 91 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
City of Eden15,50000
City of Reidsville14,58522
Dan River Water Inc12,57333
Town of Mayodan2,47811
Town of Madison2,11600
Rockingham County 158 Corridor1,50011
Town of Stoneville1,30800
Rockingham Co - 220 Corridor1,20022
River Run S/d36011
Carolina Camping & Marina30000
Lawsonville Road Bapt Church27500
Pleasant Ridge MHP26911

Showing the 12 largest of 91 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

  • 25 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 Rockingham 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: 91 active water systems serve Rockingham County. 18 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 Rockingham County are not considered safe for swimming?

State assessments under the Clean Water Act list DAN RIVER, Cascade Creek, Little Troublesome Creek, Reedy Fork (Hardys Mill Pond), Smith River and 9 more as not supporting recreation. That is an official determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

68 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 Rockingham County report