North Carolina reservoir · state assessment record
YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) (1,352 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.
- 1,352
- 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 5% 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.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P95
- 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.
Where YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) stands in the filed 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: assessed size
The number that most separates YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level) nationally is assessed size: 1,352 acres, larger than 95% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
The uses disagree
This record splits: Not Supporting on aquatic life, Fully Supporting on recreation. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
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 |
| Recreation | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Fully Supporting |
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 | 2008 | TMDL priority: High |
| Turbidity | Aquatic Life | 2008 | TMDL priority: High |
Reading the record
Cleanup queue for YADKIN RIVER (including upper portion of High Rock Lake below normal operating level)
2 listed causes ranked High in the TMDL queue, still without a plan
North Carolina ranked 2 listed causes high in its TMDL development queue, and no cleanup plan is on file for those listings yet. That queue rank is the state's own scheduling signal, not an EPA national rule.
A High ranking names a position in the state's plan-writing queue; it is not a measure of how impaired the water is. How listing and cleanup work.
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 1,352 assessed acres it ranks 1,836th 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 1,835 lakes with a larger one.
Still unfiled
The state has not yet filed a definitive fish-consumption 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
1,352 Top 5% larger than 95% 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 29th by listed-cause count (2 listed causes) and 19th 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 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 (1,352 acres here).
- Eagle Creek Reservoir (Pws) · 1,350 acres · IN
- Glenn Shoals · 1,350 acres · IL
- Konawa Lake · 1,350 acres · OK
- Bumping Lake · 1,354 acres · WA
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
- 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 NC12-(108.5)b4. 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.