Meets state standards for swimming
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Hiwassee basin
Big Lost Creek: what state assessments show
No failing determinations on record for the uses assessed.
That covers what the state assessed — not what it hasn't.
Big Lost Creek in the Hiwassee basin is tracked by the state as a single assessed stretch (most recent cycle: 2024). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.
Designated uses
Supports healthy aquatic life
Can fish and aquatic insects live here?
A use the state didn't report is omitted rather than shown as passing. "Never assessed" means unknown — never clean.
Assessed stretches
One assessment unit covers this waterway here.
Assessment unit IDs (1)
TN06020002018_1500
What the record doesn’t establish
- Whether fish caught in Big Lost Creek are safe to eat — no fish-consumption assessment on record here.
- What today's water looks like — assessments are determinations made on multi-year cycles, not live measurements.
Common questions
Is it safe to swim in Big Lost Creek?
The state's most recent assessment found Big Lost Creek meets its standards for swimming. That is a determination about the assessed stretches, not a guarantee about any spot on any day.
Can you eat fish caught in Big Lost Creek?
The state has not rated Big Lost Creek for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.
How current is this assessment?
The most recent reporting cycle on record is 2024. States assess waters under the Clean Water Act on multi-year cycles, so conditions can change between assessments. The sources table shows when this snapshot was retrieved.
Sources
| Dataset | Agency version | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|
| EPA/state ATTAINS waterway assessments | ATTAINS_Assessment ArcGIS snapshot (gispub.epa.gov) | 2026-08-15 |
| ATTAINS waterway geometry | ATTAINS_Assessment ArcGIS lines + areas (gispub.epa.gov) | 2026-08-16 |
| USGS watershed boundaries | USGS WBD via National Map MapServer | 2026-08-15 |
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.
Also in the Hiwassee basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Big Lost Creek to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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