Not safe for swimming (2 of 12 assessed stretches)
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Upper French Broad basin
French Broad River: what state assessments show
Not safe for swimming. Does not support healthy aquatic life.
Official state determinations under the Clean Water Act — about the waterway, not measurements taken today.
French Broad River in the Upper French Broad basin is tracked by the state as 12 separately assessed stretches (most recent cycle: 2024). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.
Designated uses
Meets state standards for eating fish
Can I eat fish caught here?
Does not support healthy aquatic life (3 of 12 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
- fecal coliform (pathogens)
- benthic macroinvertebrates bioassessments (cause unknown - impaired biota)
- mercury
- alteration in stream-side or littoral vegetative covers (habitat alterations)
- sedimentation/siltation (sediment)
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 12 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (12)
NC6-(1) · NC6-(27)b · NC6-(27)c · NC6-(54.75)b · NC6-(54.75)c · NC6-(54.75)d · NC6-(54.75)e · NC6-(54.75)f · TN06010105001_1000 · TN06010105001_2000 · TN06010105001_3000 · TN06010105001_4000
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 French Broad River?
The state has determined French Broad River is not considered safe for swimming (2 of 12 assessed stretches). That is an official Clean Water Act determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.
Can you eat fish caught in French Broad River?
The state's most recent assessment found French Broad River meets its standards for eating fish caught there.
Why is French Broad River listed as impaired?
State assessments list: fecal coliform, benthic macroinvertebrates bioassessments, mercury, alteration in stream-side or littoral vegetative covers, sedimentation/siltation. 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 French Broad basin
Go deeper
Search an address near French Broad River to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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