Meets state standards for swimming
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Upper Tar basin
Tar River: 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.
Tar River in the Upper Tar basin is tracked by the state as 11 separately assessed stretches (most recent cycle: 2022). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.
Designated uses
Meets state standards for eating fish
Can I eat fish caught here?
Does not support healthy aquatic life (2 of 11 assessed stretches)
Can fish and aquatic insects live here?
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
- ph, low (ph/acidity/caustic conditions)
- 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 11 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (11)
NC28-(1) · NC28-(15.5) · NC28-(24.7)a · NC28-(24.7)b · NC28-(5.3) · NC28-(5.7) · NC28-(64.5) · NC28-(67) · NC28-(69) · NC28-(74)a · NC28-(74)b
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 Tar River?
The state's most recent assessment found Tar River 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 Tar River?
The state's most recent assessment found Tar River meets its standards for eating fish caught there.
Why is Tar River listed as impaired?
State assessments list: ph, low, 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
| 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 Tar basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Tar River to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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