Massachusetts lake · state assessment record
Big Sandy Pond
The assessment record reported by Massachusetts to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), filed in the 2026 reporting cycle, a cycle that is open for public comment.
- 133
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Big Sandy Pond, a lake in Massachusetts, was reported but not assessed in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2026), a cycle that is open for public comment. By assessed acreage it sits in the upper quartile by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes).
- Not Assessed
- overall status
- P75
- Assessed size nationally
Assessment verdicts are the state agency's decisions as reported to EPA ATTAINS; PlainLakes renders them without modification.
Big Sandy Pond against the ATTAINS 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 Big Sandy Pond nationally is assessed size: 133 acres, larger than 75% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
IR category 3 on Big Sandy Pond
The Integrated Report category filed for Big Sandy Pond is 3. PlainLakes renders EPA's code without remapping it into a consumer grade.
Overall status: Not Assessed
ATTAINS overall status on this unit is “Not Assessed”. PlainLakes does not rewrite that vocabulary into a consumer score.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Massachusetts carries 1,191 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Big Sandy Pond 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aesthetic | Other | Insufficient Information |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Assessed |
| Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | Aquatic-life or related | Not Assessed |
| Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Insufficient Information |
| Secondary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Insufficient Information |
The record
Listed impairment causes
The state reported this lake in its 2026 Integrated Report cycle but reached no assessment determination, so no causes are listed. The unit is recorded under EPA integrated-reporting Category 3: reviewed, with insufficient information to determine whether it meets water-quality standards. An undetermined waterbody is neither confirmed clean nor confirmed impaired.
Reading the record
What Big Sandy Pond's record holds
Scale and rank
Big Sandy Pond is one of 1,191 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Massachusetts. It is not among the 678 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 133 assessed acres it ranks 9,669th 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 9,668 lakes with a larger one.
What this record holds
Massachusetts filed this lake in its 2026 Integrated Report cycle but reached no determination, so the record holds that filing and its use rows, but no verdict, and with nothing judged, no impairment cause to track over time. The state has not yet filed a definitive fish-consumption verdict, a definitive recreation verdict, a definitive aquatic-life verdict, and 1 other for this record; those fields populate when it reports them in a future Integrated Report cycle.
Why no water-level record
Big Sandy Pond has no daily USGS water-level or reservoir-storage series on this page because NWIS lists a lake monitoring site named for the waterbody, but the site is not active, and PlainLakes ingests only the active inventory, so there is no series to attach. How PlainLakes links gauges.
In context
Where Big Sandy Pond 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
133 Top 25% larger than 75% 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
In both charts each bar is a band and taller bars hold more waterbodies; the dashed line and filled bar mark Big Sandy Pond. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Massachusetts context
ATTAINS carries 1,191 lake-type waterbodies in Massachusetts, 678 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 40 fully supporting.
| Other large assessed lakes in Massachusetts | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Quabbin Reservoir Not Supporting | 24,010 |
| Wachusett Reservoir Not Supporting | 3,962 |
| Assawompset Pond Not Assessed | 2,034 |
| North Watuppa Pond Not Supporting | 1,728 |
| Long Pond Not Supporting | 1,728 |
| South Watuppa Pond Not Supporting | 1,473 |
Lakes near Big Sandy Pond's assessed acres
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (133 acres here).
- Alameda Creek Quarry Ponds · 133 acres · CA
- Yellowwood Lake · 133 acres · IN
- Dumbbell · 133 acres · MN
- Byram Lake · 133 acres · MI
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 MA95011. 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.