WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · waterway · Lumber basin

PD-038: what state assessments show

Fish here are under a consumption advisory.

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

PD-038 in the Lumber basin is tracked by the state as a single assessed stretch (most recent cycle: 2024). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.

Designated uses

Swimming & recreation

Meets state standards for swimming

Is it safe to swim here?

Eating fish caught here

Fish here are under a consumption advisory

Can I eat fish caught here?

Aquatic life

Supports 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

  • mercury in fish tissue (mercury)

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)

SCPD-038

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 PD-038?

The state's most recent assessment found PD-038 meets its standards for swimming. That is a determination about the assessed stretches, not a guarantee about any spot on any day.

Can you eat fish caught in PD-038?

The state has determined fish caught in PD-038 are under a consumption advisory — it doesn't meet standards for eating the fish caught in it.

Why is PD-038 listed as impaired?

State assessments list: mercury in fish tissue. 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 Lumber basin

Go deeper

Search an address near PD-038 to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.

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