North Carolina reservoir · state assessment record
Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) (132 acres)
Assessment decisions reported by N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2022 reporting cycle.
- 132
- Assessed acres
- Reservoir
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir), a reservoir in North Carolina, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 3 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2022). By assessed acreage it sits in the upper quartile by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (3 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P75
- Assessed size nationally
- P5
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- aquatic life
Assessment verdicts are the state agency's decisions as reported to EPA ATTAINS; PlainLakes renders them without modification.
A composite of this record's EPA ATTAINS designated-use verdicts, filed impairment count, and assessment currency, weighted and benchmarked against the national corpus of assessed active waterbodies. This is a water-quality standing, not a human-recreation or property-value judgment, and dimensions with no filed verdict drop out rather than count against the score.
Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) against the ATTAINS register
Paragraphs are selected by this unit's percentiles and use matrix: different lakes lead with different dimensions. Figures are ATTAINS / portal register arithmetic, not advice.
The signature stat: cause-list length
The standout filed fact is cause-list length: 3 listed impairment causes, a longer list than 90% of assessed lake-type units (n=23,610). List length tracks how states sample and code, not a severity score.
Every ruled-on use is not supporting
On the uses this filer ruled on, aquatic life, every determination is Not Supporting. That is a use-by-use reading of the filed record, not a single overall lake grade.
Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir): Category 4A reading
Category 4A means a TMDL (or equivalent) is already approved for the impairment on Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir). The remaining work is implementation and tracking, read the cleanup-standing and cause rows for what the state already committed to address.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
Large assessed unit
At 132 acres, Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) clears the upper tercile of assessed lake-type units with an area on file (9,716 still larger). Size comparisons use the portal's deduplicated lake ranking population, not raw ATTAINS row counts.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, North Carolina carries 299 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) without modification. See our methodology for reporting-unit limits and gauge linking rules.
The record
Designated-use assessments
Fully Supporting and Not Supporting are the state's definitive verdicts; other entries mean the use was not conclusively assessed in this cycle.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatic Life | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Insufficient Information |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state listed as impairing designated uses of this reservoir, with the cycle each was first listed and the Clean Water Act action recorded against it.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chlorophyll-a - Aquatic Life Use Support | Aquatic Life | 1901 (not a listing cycle) | TMDL approved |
| Nitrogen, Total | Aquatic Life | 1901 (not a listing cycle) | TMDL approved |
| Phosphorus, Total | Aquatic Life | 1901 (not a listing cycle) | TMDL approved |
Reading the record
Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir): Category 4A reading
4A Category 4A: impaired, TMDL completed
North Carolina filed this assessment unit as Category 4A: impaired, with a pollutant-budget TMDL already completed under 303(d). The listing remains an impairment finding; the plan is on file rather than still awaiting write-up.
Scale and rank
Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) is one of 299 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from North Carolina, and one of 92 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 132 assessed acres it ranks 9,717th by assessed size among the 38,628 lakes the dataset carries an area for, counting a state’s repeated filings of one water once, behind 9,716 lakes with a larger one.
Awaiting a filing
The state has not yet filed a definitive fish-consumption verdict and a definitive recreation verdict for this record; those fields populate when it reports them in a future Integrated Report cycle.
In context
Where Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) sits nationally
Assessed size among U.S. lakes
Distribution of assessed acreage across ATTAINS lakes filed with an area, counting a state’s repeated filings of one water once
132 Top 25% larger than 75% of 38,628 lakes
lakes the dataset carries an area for, counting a state’s repeated filings of one water once, bucketed by value
Source EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycles 1987–2026
Listed causes vs waterbodies carrying a verdict
How many impairment causes U.S. waterbodies with a reported verdict carry
3 Longer than most more listed causes than 90% of 23,610 waterbodies carrying a verdict
named waterbodies carrying a verdict, bucketed by value
Source EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycles 1987–2026
In both charts each bar is a band and taller bars hold more waterbodies; the dashed line and filled bar mark Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir). Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
North Carolina context
ATTAINS carries 299 lake-type waterbodies in North Carolina, 90 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 62 fully supporting. Among the 92 indexed units there, Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir) ranks 20th by listed-cause count (3 listed causes) and 68th by assessed size among the 91 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (90 statewide) . Its listed causes include Chlorophyll-a - Aquatic Life Use Support; and Nitrogen, Total, which also appear among North Carolina's most-filed impairment causes (led by Chlorophyll-a - Aquatic Life Use Support). It also lists Phosphorus, Total, outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in North Carolina | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| CATAWBA RIVER (Lake Norman below elevation 760) Not Supporting | 31,332 |
| Phelps Lake Fully Supporting | 15,938 |
| Albemarle Sound Not Supporting | 15,600 |
| Nutbush Creek Arm of John H. Kerr Reservoir (below normal pool elevation 300 feet MSL or as this elevation may be adjusted by the Corps of Engineers) Fully Supporting | 9,690 |
| Lake Waccamaw Fully Supporting | 8,840 |
| ROANOKE RIVER (Lake Gaston below normal full power pool elevation 200 MSL) Fully Supporting | 7,965 |
Peers near Back Creek (Graham-Mebane Reservoir)'s size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (132 acres here).
- Hiwassee Lake · 132 acres · OK
- Storey · 132 acres · IL
- Charley · 132 acres · MN
- Gowan · 132 acres · MN
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (3 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- 67th St. Beach · 3 causes · IL
- Abiquiu Reservoir · 3 causes · NM
- Absecon Creek (AC Reserviors) (gage to SB) · 3 causes · NJ
- Absecon Creek (below gage) · 3 causes · NJ
What to do with this record
- Assessment verdicts are cycle-based, not real-time. For fish-consumption decisions, your state advisory program is the binding source. Consumption status guide
- Impairment listings follow the Clean Water Act 303(d) process; a listing is a regulatory finding, not a closure notice. 303(d) explained
PlainLakes renders state assessment decisions and federal gauge observations without modification. It does not issue advisories.
Assessment decisions on this page are rendered directly from state Integrated Report records in EPA's ATTAINS system; gauge figures are daily-value observations from the USGS National Water Information System, no number is typed in by an editor. Overall status, use verdicts, and causes are the state's reported decisions for assessment unit NC16-18-(1.5)a1. Counts and percentiles are computed across all lake-type records PlainLakes ingests from ATTAINS. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-17. Primary sources: EPA ATTAINS and USGS National Water Information System.