Not safe for swimming (1 of 4 assessed stretches)
Is it safe to swim here?
North Carolina · waterway · Watts Bar Lake basin
Whites Creek: 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.
Whites Creek in the Watts Bar Lake basin is tracked by the state as 4 separately assessed stretches (most recent cycle: 2024). Below is every designated-use determination on record — and what hasn't been assessed.
Designated uses
Does not support healthy aquatic life (1 of 4 assessed stretches)
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
- escherichia coli (e. coli) (pathogens)
- other anthropogenic substrate alterations (habitat alterations)
- sedimentation/siltation (sediment)
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 4 assessment units — a stretch can fail a standard while another meets it.
Assessment unit IDs (4)
TN06010201040_1000 · TN06010201040_2000 · TN06010201040_3000 · TN06010201080_0100
What the record doesn’t establish
- Whether fish caught in Whites Creek 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 Whites Creek?
The state has determined Whites Creek is not considered safe for swimming (1 of 4 assessed stretches). That is an official Clean Water Act determination about the waterway, not a measurement taken today.
Can you eat fish caught in Whites Creek?
The state has not rated Whites Creek for fish consumption — unknown, not clean.
Why is Whites Creek listed as impaired?
State assessments list: escherichia coli (e. coli), other anthropogenic substrate alterations, sedimentation/siltation. 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 Watts Bar Lake basin
Go deeper
Search an address near Whites Creek to see how it connects — what drains toward it, monitoring-station samples, and permitted operations in its watershed.
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