Not safe for swimming
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Albemarle basin
Lower Scopus Marsh: what state assessments show
Not safe for swimming.
Official state determinations under the Clean Water Act — about the waterway, not measurements taken today.
Lower Scopus Marsh in the Albemarle 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
Never assessed — condition unknown
Can I eat fish caught here?
Tested, but not enough information to decide
Can fish and aquatic insects live here?
A use the state didn't report is omitted rather than shown as passing. "Never assessed" means unknown — never clean.
Listed causes
- enterococcus (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
One assessment unit covers this waterway here.
Assessment unit IDs (1)
VAT-K42R_SPS02A20
What the record doesn’t establish
- Whether fish caught in Lower Scopus Marsh are safe to eat — no fish-consumption assessment on record 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 Lower Scopus Marsh?
The state has determined Lower Scopus Marsh is not considered safe for swimming. That is an official Clean Water Act determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.
Can you eat fish caught in Lower Scopus Marsh?
The state has not rated Lower Scopus Marsh for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.
Why is Lower Scopus Marsh listed as impaired?
State assessments list: enterococcus. 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 Albemarle basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Lower Scopus Marsh to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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