WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · waterway · Lower Dan basin

Peter Creek: 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.

Peter Creek in the Lower Dan 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

Swimming & recreation

Not safe for swimming

Is it safe to swim here?

Eating fish caught here

Never assessed — condition unknown

Can I eat fish caught here?

Aquatic life

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

  • dissolved oxygen (organic enrichment/oxygen depletion)
  • 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

One assessment unit covers this waterway here.

Assessment unit IDs (1)

VAW-L73R_PET01A16

What the record doesn’t establish

  • Whether fish caught in Peter Creek 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 Peter Creek?

The state has determined Peter Creek 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 Peter Creek?

The state has not rated Peter Creek for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.

Why is Peter Creek listed as impaired?

State assessments list: dissolved oxygen, 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 Lower Dan basin

Go deeper

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

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