North Carolina reservoir · state assessment record
YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) (488 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.
- 488
- Assessed acres
- Reservoir
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level), a reservoir in North Carolina, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 2 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2022). By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 10% by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (2 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting. Fish consumption is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P90
- Assessed size nationally
- P10
- 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.
Reading YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level)'s filed record
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: assessed size
The number that most separates YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) nationally is assessed size: 487.9 acres, larger than 90% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
Every filed use falls short
On the uses this filer ruled on, fish consumption, aquatic life, every determination is Not Supporting. That is a use-by-use reading of the filed record, not a single overall lake grade.
YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level): Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level). Read the listed causes and any cleanup actions filed beside them before treating the overall status tile as a finished restoration story.
Longer than most cause lists
2 listed causes puts this unit above 80% of assessed lake-type records by list length. Treat that as a coding-and-sampling signal: states that split pollutants finely mint longer lists without proving worse water.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
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 YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) 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 |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Supporting |
| Recreation | Recreation | Insufficient Information |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCBs - Fish Consumption Advisory | Fish Consumption | 2014 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Turbidity | Aquatic Life | 2018 | TMDL priority: Medium |
Reading the record
Where YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) sits among peers
18% of North Carolina's lakes assessed this deeply also had no use supported
North Carolina ruled definitively on 2 designated uses at YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) and found none of them supported. The dataset shows 49 North Carolina lakes judged to that same depth.
North Carolina's assessed lakes are most often judged on 1 use; this one was judged on 2.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All supported | 50 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 28 | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| None supported | 44 | 9 (this record) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ringed cell: YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level). Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) 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 488 assessed acres it ranks 3,789th 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 3,788 lakes with a larger one.
Still unfiled
The state has not yet filed a definitive recreation verdict for this record; that field populates when it reports it in a future Integrated Report cycle.
In context
Where YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) 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
488 Top 10% larger than 90% 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
2 Longer than most more listed causes than 80% 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 YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level). 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, YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) ranks 31st by listed-cause count (2 listed causes) and 41st by assessed size among the 91 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (90 statewide) . Its listed causes include PCBs - Fish Consumption Advisory and Turbidity, which also appear among North Carolina's most-filed impairment causes (led by Chlorophyll-a - Aquatic Life Use Support).
| 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 YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level)'s size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (488 acres here).
- Ella Lake · 488 acres · FL
- George, Lake · 488 acres · IN
- Loch Lomond Lake · 488 acres · AR
- Man · 488 acres · MN
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (2 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- 12th St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
- 31st St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
- 49th St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
- 57th St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
What to do with this record
- The fish-consumption use is assessed as not supporting. Before eating fish from this reservoir, check your state fish-advisory program for species-specific meal limits. 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 NC12-(108.5)b1. 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.