WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · waterway · Haw basin

Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond): 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.

Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond) in the Haw 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

Swimming & recreation

Not safe for swimming (1 of 3 assessed stretches)

Is it safe to swim here?

Aquatic life

Does not support healthy aquatic life (2 of 3 assessed stretches)

Can fish and aquatic insects live here?

Use as a drinking-water source

Meets standards as a drinking-water source

Can this water be used as a drinking-water supply?

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 passage barrier (habitat alterations)
  • flow regime modification (hydrologic alteration)

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)

NC16-11-(9)a2 · NC16-11-(9)a3 · NC16-11-(9)b

What the record doesn’t establish

  • Whether fish caught in Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond) 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 Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond)?

The state has determined Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond) is not considered safe for swimming (1 of 3 assessed stretches). That is an official Clean Water Act determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.

Can you eat fish caught in Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond)?

The state has not rated Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond) for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.

Why is Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond) listed as impaired?

State assessments list: benthic macroinvertebrates bioassessments, fecal coliform, fish passage barrier, flow regime modification. 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 Haw basin

Go deeper

Search an address near Reedy Fork (hardys Mill Pond) to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.

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