Does not support healthy aquatic life
Can fish and aquatic insects live here?
North Carolina · waterway · Hiwassee basin
Bitter Creek: what state assessments show
Does not support healthy aquatic life.
Official state determinations under the Clean Water Act — about the waterway, not measurements taken today.
Bitter 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
A use the state didn't report is omitted rather than shown as passing. "Never assessed" means unknown — never clean.
Listed causes
- fish bioassessments (cause unknown - impaired biota)
A listed cause names what the assessment found in the water. It is not an attribution to any specific facility or source.
Assessed stretches
One assessment unit covers this waterway here.
Assessment unit IDs (1)
GAR060200020303
What the record doesn’t establish
- Whether Bitter Creek is safe for swimming — the state hasn't assessed it for recreation here.
- Whether fish caught in Bitter 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 Bitter Creek?
The state has not rated Bitter Creek for swimming — that's a gap in the record, not a clean result.
Can you eat fish caught in Bitter Creek?
The state has not rated Bitter Creek for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.
Why is Bitter Creek listed as impaired?
State assessments list: fish bioassessments. A listed cause names the problem the assessment found — it does not attribute it to any specific source.
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 Bitter Creek to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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