Meets state standards for swimming
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Lower Cape Fear basin
Cape Fear River: what state assessments show
Fish here are under a consumption advisory. Does not support healthy aquatic life.
Official state determinations under the Clean Water Act — about the waterway, not measurements taken today.
Cape Fear River in the Lower Cape Fear basin is tracked by the state as 25 separately assessed stretches (most recent cycle: 2022). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.
Designated uses
Fish here are under a consumption advisory (4 of 25 assessed stretches)
Can I eat fish caught here?
Does not support healthy aquatic life (7 of 25 assessed stretches)
Can fish and aquatic insects live here?
Meets standards as a drinking-water source
Can this water be used as a drinking-water supply?
A use the state didn't report is omitted rather than shown as passing. "Never assessed" means unknown — never clean.
Listed causes
- benthic macroinvertebrates bioassessments (cause unknown - impaired biota)
- dissolved oxygen (organic enrichment/oxygen depletion)
- ph, low (ph/acidity/caustic conditions)
- copper (metals (other than mercury))
- pathogens
A listed cause names what the assessment found in the water. It is not an attribution to any specific facility or source.
Assessed stretches
The state tracks this waterway as 25 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (25)
NC18-(26)b · NC18-(26.25)b · NC18-(26.25)c · NC18-(26.75)a · NC18-(26.75)b · NC18-(26.75)c · NC18-(49) · NC18-(53.5) · NC18-(58.5) · NC18-(59) · NC18-(63)a · NC18-(63)b · NC18-(71)a1 · NC18-(71)a2 · NC18-(71)a3 · NC18-(71)a4 · NC18-(71)a5 · NC18-(71)a6 · NC18-(71)b · NC18-(87.5)a · NC18-(87.5)b1a · NC18-(87.5)b1b · NC18-(87.5)b2 · NC18-(87.5)c · NC18-(87.5)d
What the record doesn’t establish
- 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 Cape Fear River?
The state's most recent assessment found Cape Fear River 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 Cape Fear River?
The state has determined fish caught in Cape Fear River are under a consumption advisory (4 of 25 assessed stretches) — it doesn't meet standards for eating the fish caught in it.
Why is Cape Fear River listed as impaired?
State assessments list: benthic macroinvertebrates bioassessments, dissolved oxygen, ph, low, copper, pathogens. 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 Lower Cape Fear basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Cape Fear River to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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