Montana lake · state assessment record
Hauser Lake
Assessment decisions reported by Montana to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2000 reporting cycle.
- 3,190
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
- Mesotrophic
- Reported trophic class
This waterbody in one line
Hauser Lake, a lake in Montana, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 8 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2000). By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 5% by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (8 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P98
- Assessed size nationally
- P0
- 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 Hauser 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: in-state cause rank
Inside Montana, cause-list rank is the local separator: Hauser Lake is 1 of 52 indexed units by listed-cause count, toward the top of that state's filed lists.
Longer than most cause lists
8 listed causes puts this unit above 99% 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.
Large assessed unit
At 3,190 acres, Hauser Lake clears the upper tercile of assessed lake-type units with an area on file (941 still larger). Size comparisons use the portal's deduplicated lake ranking population, not raw ATTAINS row counts.
The uses disagree
This record splits: Not Supporting on aquatic life, Fully Supporting on recreation. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
Hauser Lake: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Hauser 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, Montana carries 73 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Hauser 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, Montana filed the assessment basis as Monitored & Extrapolated Data. Those are EPA's own words, not PlainLakes' summary of them; where a verdict is filed as extrapolated, the state did not reach it from monitoring alone.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatic Life | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Drinking Water | Drinking-water supply designation | Not Supporting |
| Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Agricultural | Other | Not Assessed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenic | Drinking Water | 2000 | TMDL priority: Low |
| DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) | Aquatic Life | 2000 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Dissolved Oxygen | Aquatic Life | 2000 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Endosulfan Sulfate | Aquatic Life | 2000 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Endrin Aldehyde | Aquatic Life | 2000 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Mercury | Aquatic Life | 2000 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Nitrate/Nitrite (Nitrite + Nitrate as N) | Aquatic Life | 2010 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Phosphorus, Total | Aquatic Life | 2010 | TMDL priority: Low |
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.
- Arsenic
- Acid Mine Drainage (suspected) Atmospheric Deposition - Toxics (suspected) Contaminated Sediments (suspected) Impacts From Abandoned Mine Lands (Inactive) (suspected) Mine Tailings (suspected)
- DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane)
- Agriculture (suspected) Silviculture Activities (suspected)
- Dissolved Oxygen
- Agriculture (suspected) Dam Construction (Other Than Upstream Flood Control Projects) (suspected) Grazing in Riparian or Shoreline Zones (suspected) Highway/Road/Bridge Runoff (Non-Construction Related) (suspected) Impacts From Hydrostructure Flow Regulation/Modification (suspected) Municipal Point Source Discharges (suspected) Natural Sources (suspected) On-Site Treatment Systems (Septic Systems and Similar Decentralized Systems) (suspected) Silviculture Activities (suspected)
- Endosulfan Sulfate
- Agriculture (suspected) Silviculture Activities (suspected)
- Endrin Aldehyde
- Agriculture (suspected) Silviculture Activities (suspected)
- Mercury
- Natural Sources (suspected)
- Nitrate/Nitrite (Nitrite + Nitrate as N)
- Dam Construction (Other Than Upstream Flood Control Projects) (suspected) Grazing in Riparian or Shoreline Zones (suspected) Municipal Point Source Discharges (suspected) Natural Sources (suspected) On-Site Treatment Systems (Septic Systems and Similar Decentralized Systems) (suspected)
- Phosphorus, Total
- Dam Construction (Other Than Upstream Flood Control Projects) (suspected) Grazing in Riparian or Shoreline Zones (suspected) Municipal Point Source Discharges (suspected) Natural Sources (suspected) On-Site Treatment Systems (Septic Systems and Similar Decentralized Systems) (suspected)
Montana also recorded the source of at least one listing here as unknown, including for DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane); Dissolved Oxygen; Endosulfan Sulfate; Endrin Aldehyde; Mercury; Nitrate/Nitrite (Nitrite + Nitrate as N); and Phosphorus, Total.
Reading the record
Assessment basis on Hauser Lake
1 filed assessment basis on this record
For the definitive verdicts on this record, Montana filed the assessment basis as Monitored & Extrapolated Data. Those are EPA's own words, not PlainLakes' summary of them; where a verdict is filed as extrapolated, the state did not reach it from monitoring alone.
The cycle is when the state reported; the monitoring year, where filed, is when it measured. How to read assessment currency.
Scale and rank
Hauser Lake is one of 73 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Montana, and one of 52 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 3,190 assessed acres it ranks 942nd 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 941 lakes with a larger one.
Still unfiled
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.
Reported trophic class
Mesotrophic is the trophic class the filing agency reported to EPA ATTAINS for this assessment unit. It describes nutrient enrichment, not whether the water is safe, and it is not a PlainLakes inference. What the trophic scale measures.
Why no water-level record
Hauser Lake 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 Hauser 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
3,190 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
8 Longer than most more listed causes than 99% 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 Hauser Lake. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Montana context
ATTAINS carries 73 lake-type waterbodies in Montana, 28 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 28 fully supporting. Among the 52 indexed units there, Hauser Lake ranks 1st by listed-cause count (8 listed causes) and 19th by assessed size among the 52 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (28 statewide) . Its listed causes include Mercury; and Phosphorus, Total, which also appear among Montana's most-filed impairment causes (led by Flow Regime Modification). It also lists Arsenic; DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane); Dissolved Oxygen; Endosulfan Sulfate; Endrin Aldehyde; and Nitrate/Nitrite (Nitrite + Nitrate as N), outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in Montana | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Fort Peck Reservoir Not Supporting | 233,296 |
| Flathead Lake Not Supporting | 57,305 |
| Canyon Ferry Reservoir Not Supporting | 32,810 |
| Lake Koocanusa Not Supporting | 28,875 |
| Hungry Horse Reservoir Fully Supporting | 23,596 |
| Lake Elwell (Tiber Reservoir) Fully Supporting | 15,041 |
Peers near Hauser Lake's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (3,190 acres here).
- Lake Bob Sandlin · 3,188 acres · TX
- Lake Erie Islands Shoreline (<=3m) · 3,194 acres · OH
- Gibson Generating Plant Lake · 3,200 acres · IN
- Mississinewa Reservoir · 3,180 acres · IN
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (8 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- Ashuelot River - Fisk Mill Hydro · 8 causes · NH
- Assabet River Reservoir · 8 causes · MA
- Billington Sea · 8 causes · MA
- Brownlee Reservoir, Upper (Weiser to Porters Flat) · 8 causes · ID
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 MT41I007_040. 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.