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).

Swim Guide will be

Back in 2026!

Swim Guide has wrapped up for the 2025 season. Weekly water-quality results from more than 50 popular recreational sites in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico will return in 2026, starting Memorial Day weekend, and running until Labor Day weekend.

We’d like to thank the many volunteers who made this program happen in 2025!

If you’d like to volunteer in 2026, email emily@soundrivers.org. We’d love to have your help!

UPPER NEUSE

Durham

Rolling View –

Creedmoor

Beaver Dam –

Highway 50 boat ramp –

Barton Creek, Wake Forest –

Raleigh

Buffaloe Road –

Falls of Neuse –

Poole Road –

Clayton

Clayton River Walk –

Neuse Golf Club –

Smithfield Town Commons –

LOWER NEUSE

Kinston

Highway 11 Boat Ramp –

Oak Bluff Road –

Maple Cypress Boat Ramp, Grifton –

Cowpen Landing, Vanceboro –

Bridgeton Park –

New Bern

Glenburnie –

Lawson Creek Park –

Spring Garden –

Brices Creek –

Trent Woods –

River Bend –

Pollocksville –

Black Beard Sailing Club –

Slocum Creek, Havelock –

Oriental

Midyette Street –

Pierce Creek –

TAR-PAMLICO

Lake Royale

Pavilion beach –

Pavilion lawn –

Clubhouse/Sagamore boat dock –

Clubhouse/Sagamore beach –

Moccasin dock/Cypress Creek –

Crows Landing –

Rocky Mount

Sunset Park –

Battle Park –

Tar River Reservoir –

Tarboro boat ramp –

Greenville

Town Common –

Wildwood Park –

Port Terminal –

Yankee Hall Road, Pactolus –

Washington

Mason’s Landing –

Washington waterfront –

Havens Gardens in Washington –

Dinah’s Landing at Goose Creek State Park –

Pamlico Plantation –

Cypress Landing, Chocowinity –

Blount’s Bay –

Cotton Patch Landing, Blount’s Creek –

Bath

Bonner Point –

Plum Point –

Wright’s Creek, Belhaven –

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!

Like the Swim Guide? Donate here to help keep the Swim Guide alive!

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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.