Georgia lake · state assessment record
Allatoona Lake (2,825 acres)
Assessment decisions reported by Georgia Environmental Protection Division to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2026 reporting cycle.
- 2,825
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Allatoona Lake, a lake in Georgia, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 3 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2026). By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 5% by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (3 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P97
- Assessed size nationally
- P5
- 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 Allatoona Lake'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: in-state cause rank
Inside Georgia, cause-list rank is the local separator: Allatoona Lake is 3 of 98 indexed units by listed-cause count, toward the top of that state's filed lists.
Large assessed unit
At 2,825 acres, Allatoona Lake clears the upper tercile of assessed lake-type units with an area on file (1,040 still larger). Size comparisons use the portal's deduplicated lake ranking population, not raw ATTAINS row counts.
No ruled-on use clears the bar
On the uses this filer ruled on, recreation, aquatic life, every determination is Not Supporting. That is a use-by-use reading of the filed record, not a single overall lake grade.
Longer than most cause lists
3 listed causes puts this unit above 90% 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.
Allatoona Lake: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Allatoona Lake. Read the listed causes and any cleanup actions filed beside them before treating the overall status tile as a finished restoration story.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Georgia carries 125 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Allatoona Lake 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drinking Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Not Supporting |
| Fishing | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Recreation | Recreation | Not Supporting |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state listed as impairing designated uses of this lake, 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 | Recreation, Drinking Water Supply, Fishing | 2020 | TMDL approved |
| PCBs in Fish Tissue | Fishing | 2024 | TMDL approved |
| Thallium in Fish Tissue | Fishing | 2024 | None reported |
Probable sources named by the state
Each source below is listed under the cause the state filed it against, and carries the word the state filed with it — confirmed, or suspected.
- Chlorophyll-a
- Urban Runoff/Storm Sewers (suspected) Municipal Point Source Discharges (suspected) Industrial Point Source Discharge (suspected) Non-Point Source (suspected)
- PCBs in Fish Tissue
- Urban Runoff/Storm Sewers (suspected) Non-Point Source (suspected)
- Thallium in Fish Tissue
- Urban Runoff/Storm Sewers (suspected) Non-Point Source (suspected)
Reading the record
Where Allatoona Lake sits among peers
39% of Georgia's lakes assessed this deeply also had no use supported
Georgia ruled definitively on 3 designated uses at Allatoona Lake and found none of them supported. The dataset shows 36 Georgia lakes judged to that same depth.
Georgia's assessed lakes are most often judged on 2 uses; this one was judged on 3.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All supported | 20 | 41 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 8 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| None supported | 9 | 5 | 14 (this record) | 0 | 0 |
Ringed cell: Allatoona Lake. Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Allatoona Lake is one of 125 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Georgia, and one of 98 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 2,825 assessed acres it ranks 1,041st 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 1,040 lakes with a larger one.
Awaiting a filing
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.
Why no water-level record
Allatoona Lake has no daily USGS water-level or reservoir-storage series on this page because a site carries the lake’s name, but that name fits more than one assessed waterbody in the state, and PlainLakes declines it rather than guessing. How PlainLakes links gauges.
In context
Where Allatoona Lake 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
2,825 Top 3% larger than 97% 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
3 Longer than most more listed causes than 90% 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 Allatoona Lake. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Georgia context
ATTAINS carries 125 lake-type waterbodies in Georgia, 47 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 72 fully supporting. Among the 98 indexed units there, Allatoona Lake ranks 3rd by listed-cause count (3 listed causes) and 27th by assessed size among the 69 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (47 statewide) . Its listed causes include Chlorophyll-a, PCBs in Fish Tissue, and Thallium in Fish Tissue, which also appear among Georgia's most-filed impairment causes (led by PCBs in Fish Tissue).
| Other large assessed lakes in Georgia | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Clarks Hill Lake Fully Supporting | 69,999 |
| Hartwell Lake Not Supporting | 55,950 |
| Walter F. George Lake Assessment unit GAR031300031304 Not Supporting | 29,890 |
| Richard B. Russell Lake Not Supporting | 26,650 |
| Seminole Lake Fully Supporting | 16,924 |
| Walter F. George Lake Assessment unit GAR031300031601 Not Supporting | 16,863 |
Peers near Allatoona Lake's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (2,825 acres here).
- Turlock Lake · 2,824 acres · CA
- Big Bear Lake · 2,820 acres · CA
- Bynum Reservoir · 2,819 acres · MT
- Georgetown Lake · 2,834 acres · MT
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (3 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- 67th St. Beach · 3 causes · IL
- Abiquiu Reservoir · 3 causes · NM
- Absecon Creek (AC Reserviors) (gage to SB) · 3 causes · NJ
- Absecon Creek (below gage) · 3 causes · NJ
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 GAR031501041012. 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.