Fish here are under a consumption advisory (1 of 2 assessed stretches)
Can I eat fish caught here?
North Carolina · waterway · Upper Catawba basin
Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760): 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.
Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760) in the Upper Catawba basin is tracked by the state as 2 separately assessed stretches (most recent cycle: 2022). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.
Designated uses
Does not support healthy aquatic life (1 of 2 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
- pcbs - fish consumption advisory (polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs))
- turbidity
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 2 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (2)
NC11-(74) · NC11-(75)
What the record doesn’t establish
- Whether Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760) is safe for swimming — the state hasn't assessed it for recreation 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 Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760)?
The state has not rated Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760) for swimming — that's a gap in the record, not a clean result.
Can you eat fish caught in Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760)?
The state has determined fish caught in Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760) are under a consumption advisory (1 of 2 assessed stretches) — it doesn't meet standards for eating the fish caught in it.
Why is Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760) listed as impaired?
State assessments list: pcbs - fish consumption advisory, turbidity. 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 Upper Catawba basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Catawba River (lake Norman Below Elevation 760) to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
Search an address