California reservoir · state assessment record
Elsinore, Lake
Assessment decisions reported by California to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2022 reporting cycle.
- 3,311
- Assessed acres
- Lake / Reservoir / Pond
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Elsinore, Lake, a reservoir in California, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 5 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2022). By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 5% by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (5 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting. California assesses commercial and sport fishing as not supported; it reported no verdict on fish consumption itself.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P98
- Assessed size nationally
- P1
- 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.
How Elsinore, Lake reads against 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: assessed size
The number that most separates Elsinore, Lake nationally is assessed size: 3,311 acres, larger than 98% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
Longer than most cause lists
5 listed causes puts this unit above 97% 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.
Every filed use falls short
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.
Elsinore, Lake: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Elsinore, Lake. Read the listed causes and any cleanup actions filed beside them before treating the overall status tile as a finished restoration story.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Elsinore, 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, California carries 607 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Elsinore, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial and Sport Fishing | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Supporting |
| Warm Freshwater Habitat | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Water Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Supporting |
| Wildlife Habitat | Other | Not Supporting |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state listed as impairing designated uses of this reservoir, with the cycle each was first listed and the Clean Water Act action recorded against it.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ammonia | Warm Freshwater Habitat | 2024 | TMDL approved |
| Cyanobacteria Hepatotoxic Microcystins | Water Contact Recreation, Wildlife Habitat | 2024 | None reported |
| DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) | Commercial and Sport Fishing Also assessed as meeting: Warm Freshwater Habitat | 2024 | None reported |
| Dissolved Oxygen | Warm Freshwater Habitat | 2024 | TMDL approved |
| Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) | Commercial and Sport Fishing Also assessed as meeting: Warm Freshwater Habitat | 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.
- Ammonia
- Contaminated Sediments (suspected) Urban Runoff/Storm Sewers (suspected) Agriculture (suspected) Illegal Dumps or Other Inappropriate Waste Disposal (suspected)
- Dissolved Oxygen
- Non-Point Source (suspected)
California also recorded the source of at least one listing here as unknown, including for Cyanobacteria Hepatotoxic Microcystins, DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs).
Reading the record
Where Elsinore, Lake sits among peers
7 of 15 California lakes assessed this deeply also had no use supported
California ruled definitively on 4 designated uses at Elsinore, Lake and found none of them supported. The dataset shows 15 California lakes judged to that same depth.
California's assessed lakes are most often judged on 2 uses; this one was judged on 4.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All supported | 11 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 3 | 10 | 8 | 8 |
| None supported | 46 | 107 | 11 | 7 (this record) | 2 |
Ringed cell: Elsinore, Lake. Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Elsinore, Lake is one of 607 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from California, and one of 195 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 3,311 assessed acres it ranks 910th 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 909 lakes with a larger one.
In context
Where Elsinore, 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
3,311 Top 2% larger than 98% 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
5 Longer than most more listed causes than 97% 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 Elsinore, Lake. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
California context
ATTAINS carries 607 lake-type waterbodies in California, 202 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 22 fully supporting. Among the 195 indexed units there, Elsinore, Lake ranks 18th by listed-cause count (5 listed causes) and 26th by assessed size among the 195 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (202 statewide) . Its listed causes include DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), Dissolved Oxygen, and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), which also appear among California's most-filed impairment causes (led by Mercury). It also lists Ammonia and Cyanobacteria Hepatotoxic Microcystins, outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in California | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Salton Sea Not Supporting | 233,045 |
| Tahoe, Lake Not Supporting | 84,092 |
| Goose Lake (Modoc County) Not reported | 62,385 |
| Honey Lake Not Supporting | 55,526 |
| Klamath River HU, Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge Not Supporting | 48,791 |
| Mono Lake Not Supporting | 45,299 |
Peers near Elsinore, Lake's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (3,311 acres here).
- Diversion Lake · 3,309 acres · TX
- NEUSE RIVER (Falls Lake below normal pool elevation) · 3,316 acres · NC
- Pat Mayse Lake · 3,306 acres · TX
- Whitefish Lake · 3,317 acres · MT
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (5 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- Alexandria Lake No. 3 · 5 causes · NE
- Alexauken Ck (above 74d 55m) · 5 causes · NJ
- Alexauken Ck (below 74d 55m to 11BA06) · 5 causes · NJ
- Alloway Ck (Quinton to Alloway-WdstwnRd) · 5 causes · NJ
What to do with this record
- The listing here is on a fishery use, not on fish consumption, and this state reported no consumption verdict for this reservoir. Your state fish-advisory program is the source for whether the catch is safe to eat. 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 CAL8023100019990208151100. 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.