Cane Creek - Spring Mountain Community Center

Source Information

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Resources established the WNC Recreational Water Quality Monitoring Program (WNC Rec Program) to engage community partners to aid in development of a science based recreational water quality monitoring program in the Western Region of the State. In 2022, NC Department of Health and Human Services provided recommended primary and secondary recreational guidance values for E. coli in recreational freshwater in North Carolina. This freshwater recreational guidance states that E. coli values greater than 126 CFU/100 mL represent an increased exposure risk for primary recreation (swimming, snorkeling, etc.) and E. coli values above 886 CFU/100 mL represent an increased risk for secondary recreation activities (tubing, kayaking, boating, fishing, etc.). As of May 2026, Class B (Primary Recreation) waters’ bacterial indicator organism was updated in 15A NCAC 02B .0219(3)(b) from fecal coliform bacteria to E. coli to better align with the EPA Recreational Water Quality Criteria that were revised in 2012. For now, Class C (Secondary Recreation) waters' bacterial indicator organism remains as fecal coliform for North Carolina surface water standards. Sites associated with the WNC Rec Program are sampled for E. coli once a week from May to September and analyzed at the Division’s Asheville Regional Laboratory using Colilert-18 methodology. Results are available the next day. A site will be marked red when the result exceeds the primary recreational value of 126 MPN/100 mL and green when the most recent sample value is 126 MPN/100 mL or below. All recreators should be aware results are preliminary and, while posted as soon as available, represent data that is a day old and should only be used as guidance when assessing exposure risk as bacteria levels can change at any time. The Division always recommends following the Department of Health and Human Services guidelines for recreating in natural waters, which can be found at epi.dph.ncdhhs.gov/cd/water/prevent/html. To view more detailed sampling data, including the results relevant to secondary recreation (kayaking, tubing, rafting, paddle boarding, etc.), see the WNC Rec Program's GIS Dashboard for current results: https://ncdenr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/61d99972d4cd474f9c69bdf091ad2f39. The wording on Water Quality tabs for each site will present the data as "Passed/failed to meet the water quality standard" which is misleading because the values used for the WNC Rec Program and presented here on these swim beaches are not based off of the NC surface water standards, but instead based off of the NC DHHS water quality recommendation for E. coli in recreational waters. Due to the limitations of the website design, the wording for the results cannot be changed to reflect the more accurate statement that the water sample results either having an elevated health risk or not for primary recreational activities such as swimming or snorkeling. To obtain the historical data or to find out more information, please contact the Division of Water Resources Asheville Regional Office via email at rachel.rose@deq.nc.gov.