WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · waterway · Pamlico Sound basin

Head of the Hold: what state assessments show

No failing determinations on record for the uses assessed.

That covers what the state assessed — not what it hasn't.

Head of the Hold in the Pamlico Sound basin is tracked by the state as a single assessed stretch (most recent cycle: 2022). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.

Designated uses

Eating fish caught here

Meets state standards for eating fish

Can I eat fish caught 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)

NC21-35-7-14

What the record doesn’t establish

  • Whether Head of the Hold 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 Head of the Hold?

The state has not rated Head of the Hold for swimming — that's a gap in the record, not a clean result.

Can you eat fish caught in Head of the Hold?

The state's most recent assessment found Head of the Hold meets its standards for eating fish caught there.

How current is this assessment?

The most recent reporting cycle on record is 2022. 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

DatasetAgency versionRetrieved
EPA/state ATTAINS waterway assessmentsATTAINS_Assessment ArcGIS snapshot (gispub.epa.gov)2026-08-15
ATTAINS waterway geometryATTAINS_Assessment ArcGIS lines + areas (gispub.epa.gov)2026-08-16
USGS watershed boundariesUSGS WBD via National Map MapServer2026-08-15

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 Pamlico Sound basin

Go deeper

Search an address near Head of the Hold to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.

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