Meets state standards for eating fish
Can I eat fish caught here?
North Carolina · waterway · Upper Tar basin
North Fork Tar River: what state assessments show
Does not support healthy aquatic life.
Official state determinations under the Clean Water Act — about the waterway, not measurements taken today.
North Fork Tar River in the Upper Tar basin is tracked by the state as 2 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 (1 of 2 assessed stretches)
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)
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 2 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (2)
NC28-5a · NC28-5b
What the record doesn’t establish
- Whether North Fork Tar River 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 North Fork Tar River?
The state has not rated North Fork Tar River for swimming — that's a gap in the record, not a clean result.
Can you eat fish caught in North Fork Tar River?
The state's most recent assessment found North Fork Tar River meets its standards for eating fish caught there.
Why is North Fork Tar River listed as impaired?
State assessments list: benthic macroinvertebrates 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 Upper Tar basin
Go deeper
Search an address near North Fork Tar River to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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