Swim Guide

Get your weekly water quality alerts here!

swim guide here

Want to get weekly water quality alerts straight to your phone? Text “SWIM” to 833-686-5322!

EN ESPAÑOL

Sound Rivers’ Neuse and Pamlico-Tar Riverkeepers work with interns and volunteers to monitor water quality sites in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds. Our sites are sampled weekly from late May through the end of August. Sites are monitored for E. coli bacteria in freshwater and enterococci bacteria in salt water.

As soon as results of our monitoring are available they will be posted to here, can be found at the Swim Guide website, using the smartphone app, on our Facebook page, and will be announced on Public Radio East between 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. each Friday. You can also get weekly alerts during the summer via text (text SWIM to 833-686-5322 to join our text alert list).

CONDITIONS ON

Aug. 29, 2025

Swim Guide water-quality results are released on Friday afternoons. The following sites are tested weekly, from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

UPPER NEUSE

All sites passed this week.

Durham

Rolling View – pass

Creedmoor

Beaver Dam – pass

Highway 50 boat ramp – pass

Barton Creek, Wake Forest – pass

Raleigh

Buffaloe Road – not sampled

Falls of Neuse – pass

Poole Road – not sampled

Clayton

Clayton River Walk – pass

Neuse Golf Club – pass

Smithfield Town Commons – fail

LOWER NEUSE

Two sites failed to meet water quality standards this week: Lawson Creek Park in New Bern and Slocum Creek in Havelock.

Kinston

Highway 11 Boat Ramp – pass

Oak Bluff Road – pass

Maple Cypress Boat Ramp, Grifton – pass

Cowpen Landing, Vanceboro – pass

Bridgeton Park – pass

New Bern

Glenburnie – pass

Lawson Creek Park – fail

Spring Garden – pass

Brices Creek – pass

Trent Woods – pass

River Bend – pass

Pollocksville – pass

Black Beard Sailing Club – pass

Slocum Creek, Havelock – fail

Oriental

Midyette St. – pass

Pierce Creek – pass

TAR-PAMLICO

All sites passed on the Tar-Pamlico this week.

Lake Royale

Pavilion beach – pass

Pavilion lawn – pass

Clubhouse/Sagamore boat dock – pass

Clubhouse/Sagamore beach – pass

Moccasin dock/Cypress Creek – pass

Crows Landing – pass

Rocky Mount

Sunset Park – pass

Battle Park – pass

Tar River Reservoir – pass

Tarboro boat ramp – pass

Greenville

Town Common – pass

Wildwood Park – pass

Port Terminal – not sampled

Yankee Hall Road, Pactolus – pass

Washington

Mason’s Landing – pass

Washington waterfront – pass

Havens Gardens in Washington – pass

Dinah’s Landing at Goose Creek State Park – pass

Pamlico Plantation – pass

Cypress Landing, Chocowinity – pass

Blount’s Bay – not sampled

Cotton Patch Landing, Blount’s Creek – not sampled

Bath

Bonner Point – pass

Plum Point – pass

Wright’s Creek, Belhaven – pass

Get Swim Guide Results

Swim Guide volunteers sample each site on Thursdays throughout the summer and results are available by Friday afternoon. They will be posted to this page, can be found at the Swim Guide website, using the app, on our Facebook page, and will be announced on Public Radio East between 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. each Friday. You can also get the results via weekly text alerts during the summer — just text SWIM to 833-686-5322 to join our text alert list!

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Water Quality Criteria

Sound Rivers uses the North Carolina and EPA water-quality criteria for contact recreation. Sites are marked green when the last sample was at healthy levels of bacteria. Sites are marked red when the last sample was above the criteria, or unhealthy levels of bacteria. Sites are marked grey when there are no current results or there is no available information.

E. coli is a type of bacteria found in the intestines of people and other animals, and is a good indicator of recent fecal contamination. While most types of these bacteria are harmless, some types can make us sick or cause more severe gastrointestinal issues in more sensitive groups.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries Recreational Water Quality Program does additional testing in the region. Those results are also incorporated into the sites listed on the Swim Guide website and app.