Tested, but not enough information to decide
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Upper Dan basin
Talbott Reservoir: 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.
Talbott Reservoir in the Upper 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
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?
Never assessed — condition unknown
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
- mercury in fish tissue (mercury)
- temperature
- dissolved oxygen (organic enrichment/oxygen depletion)
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-L42L_DAN01A02
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 Talbott Reservoir?
The state has not rated Talbott Reservoir for swimming — that's a gap in the record, not a clean result.
Can you eat fish caught in Talbott Reservoir?
The state has determined fish caught in Talbott Reservoir are under a consumption advisory — it doesn't meet standards for eating the fish caught in it.
Why is Talbott Reservoir listed as impaired?
State assessments list: mercury in fish tissue, temperature, dissolved oxygen. 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 Talbott Reservoir to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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