WHAT’S BEYOND THE TAP

North Carolina · waterway · Saluda basin

S-073: what state assessments show

Not safe for swimming.

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

S-073 in the Saluda 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

Not safe for swimming

Is it safe to swim here?

A use the state didn't report is omitted rather than shown as passing. "Never assessed" means unknown — never clean.

Listed causes

  • 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)

SCS-073

What the record doesn’t establish

  • Whether fish caught in S-073 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 S-073?

The state has determined S-073 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 S-073?

The state has not rated S-073 for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.

Why is S-073 listed as impaired?

State assessments list: 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 Saluda basin

Go deeper

Search an address near S-073 to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.

Search an address