WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · county

Water quality in Transylvania County, North Carolina

Two things here need attention.

Two things could not be determined from the record.

Public records for Transylvania County cover 147 named waterways across 26 sub-watersheds, and 115 active water systems serving about 28,726 people. Below is what those records establish — and what they don't.

147waterways on record
7not considered safe for swimming
2under fish-consumption advisories
16never assessed at all
115water systems
12with an unresolved health-based violation

What the records flag

Needs attention

FRENCH BROAD 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
FECAL COLIFORM

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

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
MERCURY IN FISH TISSUE

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

Rivers, creeks & lakes

WaterwaySwimmingEating the fishListed causes
Boylston CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Brandy BranchNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Cherryfield CreekNot assessedNot assessedPH, LOW
CL-018Not assessedNot considered safeMERCURY IN FISH TISSUE
Davidson RiverMeets the standardMeets the standardFISH PASSAGE BARRIER, FLOW REGIME MODIFICATION
FRENCH BROAD RIVERNot considered safeMeets the standardFECAL COLIFORM
Mud CreekMeets the standardNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS, FISH BIOASSESSMENTS
Nicholson CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
Reasonover CreekNot assessedNot assessedBENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES BIOASSESSMENTS
SV-313Not assessedNot considered safeMERCURY IN FISH TISSUE
SV-335Meets the standardNot assessedNITROGEN, TOTAL
SV-336Meets the standardNot assessedNITROGEN, TOTAL

Showing 12 of 147 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 Brevard11,33600
Connestee Falls3,53200
Sapphire Lakes Development72411
Sherwood Forest Water System68000
Town of Rosman65022
The Wilds Camp45011
Knob Creek Water System44500
Mountain Falls40000
Camp Carolina in Back Country35000
Camp Illahee #232000
Camp Illahee #132000
Anchor Baptist30000

Showing the 12 largest of 115 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

  • 16 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 Transylvania 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: 115 active water systems serve Transylvania County. 12 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 Transylvania County are not considered safe for swimming?

State assessments under the Clean Water Act list FRENCH BROAD RIVER, SV-341, SV-806, Cane Creek, S-004 and 2 more as not supporting recreation. That is an official determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

123 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 Transylvania County report