Tested, but not enough information to decide
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Upper Dan basin
Philpott Reservoir (smith River): what state assessments show
Fish here are under a consumption advisory. Does not support healthy aquatic life.
Official state determinations under the Clean Water Act — about the waterway, not measurements taken today.
Philpott Reservoir (smith River) in the Upper Dan basin is tracked by the state as 3 separately assessed stretches (most recent cycle: 2022). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.
Designated uses
Fish here are under a consumption advisory
Can I eat fish caught here?
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)
- mercury in fish tissue (mercury)
- temperature
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 3 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (3)
VAW-L51L_SRE01A02 · VAW-L51L_SRE02A02 · VAW-L51L_SRE03A02
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 Philpott Reservoir (smith River)?
The state has not rated Philpott Reservoir (smith River) for swimming — that's a gap in the record, not a clean result.
Can you eat fish caught in Philpott Reservoir (smith River)?
The state has determined fish caught in Philpott Reservoir (smith River) are under a consumption advisory — it doesn't meet standards for eating the fish caught in it.
Why is Philpott Reservoir (smith River) listed as impaired?
State assessments list: dissolved oxygen, mercury in fish tissue, temperature. 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 Dan basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Philpott Reservoir (smith River) to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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