Massachusetts lake · state assessment record
Chebacco Lake
Assessment decisions reported by Massachusetts to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2026 reporting cycle, a cycle that is open for public comment.
- 204
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Chebacco Lake, a lake in Massachusetts, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 4 listed impairment causes 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); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (4 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting. Fish consumption is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P82
- Assessed size nationally
- P3
- 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.
Where Chebacco Lake stands in the filed 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: cause-list length
The standout filed fact is cause-list length: 4 listed impairment causes, a longer list than 95% of assessed lake-type units (n=23,610). List length tracks how states sample and code, not a severity score.
Every ruled-on use is not supporting
On the uses this filer ruled on, fish consumption, 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.
Chebacco Lake: Category 4A reading
Category 4A means a TMDL (or equivalent) is already approved for the impairment on Chebacco Lake. The remaining work is implementation and tracking, read the cleanup-standing and cause rows for what the state already committed to address.
Large assessed unit
At 204 acres, Chebacco Lake clears the upper tercile of assessed lake-type units with an area on file (7,093 still larger). Size comparisons use the portal's deduplicated lake ranking population, not raw ATTAINS row counts.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Chebacco Lake is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
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 Chebacco 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. For the definitive verdicts on this record, Massachusetts filed the assessment basis as Monitored Data. Those are EPA's own words, not PlainLakes' summary of them.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Aesthetic | Other | Not Supporting |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Supporting |
| Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Supporting |
| Secondary Contact 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2004 | TMDL approved |
| Curly-Leaf Pondweed | Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | 2020 | None reported |
| Fanwort | Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | 2020 | None reported |
| Aquatic Plants (Macrophytes) | Aesthetic, Primary Contact Recreation, Secondary Contact Recreation | 2026 | 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.
- Mercury in Fish Tissue
- Atmospheric Deposition (confirmed)
- Curly-Leaf Pondweed
- Introduction of Non-Native Organisms (Accidental or Intentional) (confirmed)
- Fanwort
- Introduction of Non-Native Organisms (Accidental or Intentional) (confirmed)
Massachusetts also recorded the source of at least one listing here as unknown, including for Mercury in Fish Tissue and Aquatic Plants (Macrophytes).
Reading the record
Chebacco Lake: Category 4A reading
4A Category 4A: impaired, TMDL completed
Massachusetts filed this assessment unit as Category 4A: impaired, with a pollutant-budget TMDL already completed under 303(d). The listing remains an impairment finding; the plan is on file rather than still awaiting write-up.
Scale and rank
Chebacco Lake is one of 1,191 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Massachusetts, and one of 678 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 204 assessed acres it ranks 7,094th 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 7,093 lakes with a larger one.
In context
Where Chebacco 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
204 Top 18% larger than 82% 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
4 Longer than most more listed causes than 95% 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 Chebacco Lake. 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. Among the 678 indexed units there, Chebacco Lake ranks 96th by listed-cause count (4 listed causes) and 79th by assessed size among the 678 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (678 statewide) . Its listed causes include Mercury in Fish Tissue, Fanwort, and Aquatic Plants (Macrophytes), which also appear among Massachusetts's most-filed impairment causes (led by Mercury in Fish Tissue). It also lists Curly-Leaf Pondweed, outside that top-five list.
| 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 |
Peers near Chebacco Lake's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (204 acres here).
- King Lake · 204 acres · MO
- West Fork Eno River · 204 acres · NC
- Witmer Lake · 204 acres · IN
- <Null> · 204 acres · OR
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (4 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- Agency Lake · 4 causes · OR
- Alachua Sink · 4 causes · FL
- American Falls Reservoir (Snake River) · 4 causes · ID
- Anderson & Carlton · 4 causes · IL
What to do with this record
- The fish-consumption use is assessed as not supporting. Before eating fish from this lake, check your state fish-advisory program for species-specific meal limits. 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 MA93014. 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.