WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · waterway · Lower Catawba basin

RL-13134: 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.

RL-13134 in the Lower Catawba 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?

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

  • ph (ph/acidity/caustic conditions)
  • phosphorus, total (nutrients)

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)

SCRL-13134

What the record doesn’t establish

  • Whether fish caught in RL-13134 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 RL-13134?

The state's most recent assessment found RL-13134 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 RL-13134?

The state has not rated RL-13134 for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.

Why is RL-13134 listed as impaired?

State assessments list: ph, phosphorus, total. 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 Catawba basin

Go deeper

Search an address near RL-13134 to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.

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