Not safe for swimming
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Lower Catawba basin
Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake): 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.
Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake) in the Lower Catawba basin is tracked by the state as 4 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
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
- benthic macroinvertebrates bioassessments (cause unknown - impaired biota)
- fecal coliform (pathogens)
- fish bioassessments (cause unknown - impaired biota)
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 4 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (4)
NC11-137-9a · NC11-137-9b · NC11-137-9c · NC11-137-9d
What the record doesn’t establish
- Whether fish caught in Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake) 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 Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake)?
The state has determined Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake) 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 Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake)?
The state has not rated Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake) for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.
Why is Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake) listed as impaired?
State assessments list: benthic macroinvertebrates bioassessments, fecal coliform, fish bioassessments. 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 Lower Catawba basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Mcalpine Creek (waverly Lake) to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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