WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · waterway · Upper Yadkin basin

Lovills Creek: what state assessments show

Not safe for swimming.

Official state determinations under the Clean Water Act — about the waterway, not measurements taken today.

Lovills Creek in the Upper Yadkin basin is tracked by the state as 3 separately assessed stretches (most recent cycle: 2022). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.

Designated uses

Swimming & recreation

Not safe for swimming (1 of 3 assessed stretches)

Is it safe to swim here?

Eating fish caught here

Meets state standards for eating fish

Can I eat fish caught here?

Aquatic life

Supports healthy aquatic life

Can fish and aquatic insects live here?

Use as a drinking-water source

Never assessed — condition unknown

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

  • escherichia coli (e. coli) (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 3 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.

Assessment unit IDs (3)

VAS-M02R_LOV01A02 · VAS-M02R_LOV02A02 · VAS-M02R_LOV03A04

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 Lovills Creek?

The state has determined Lovills Creek is not considered safe for swimming (1 of 3 assessed stretches). That is an official Clean Water Act determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

Can you eat fish caught in Lovills Creek?

The state's most recent assessment found Lovills Creek meets its standards for eating fish caught there.

Why is Lovills Creek listed as impaired?

State assessments list: escherichia coli (e. coli). A listed cause names the problem the assessment found — it does not attribute it to any specific source.

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 Upper Yadkin basin

Go deeper

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

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