Ohio Great Lakes waterbody · state assessment record
Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m)
Assessment decisions reported by Ohio 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.
- 2,544.98
- Assessed square miles
- Great Lakes Open Water
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m), a Great Lakes waterbody in Ohio, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with one listed impairment cause in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2026), a cycle that is open for public comment. By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 1% of assessed lakes nationally (38,628 lakes with a filed area); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (one listed cause vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Fish consumption is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P100
- Assessed size nationally
- P20
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- fish consumption
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 Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m)'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: assessed size
The number that most separates Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) nationally is assessed size: 1,628,787 acres, larger than 100% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
The uses disagree
This record splits: Not Supporting on fish consumption, Fully Supporting on recreation. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m): Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m). 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 Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
Typical cause-list length
1 listed cause is a middle-tercile list length among assessed lake-type units. Look to IR category and use outcomes for the distinctive reading.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Ohio carries 7 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) 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. The latest monitoring Ohio filed against this record runs through 2024. For the definitive verdicts on this record, Ohio filed the assessment basis as Monitored Data. Those are EPA's own words, not PlainLakes' summary of them.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Human Health - Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Supporting |
| Recreation - Bathing Waters | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Water Supply - Public Drinking | Drinking-water supply designation | Fully Supporting |
| Aquatic Life - Exceptional Warmwater Habitat | Aquatic-life or related | Not Assessed |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state listed as impairing designated uses of this Great Lakes waterbody, with the cycle each was first listed and the Clean Water Act action recorded against it.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCBs in Fish Tissue | Human Health - Fish Consumption | 2020 | TMDL priority: Medium |
Reading the record
Where Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) sits among peers
38% of the country's lakes assessed this deeply also came out mixed
Ohio ruled definitively on 3 designated uses at Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) and found 1 of 3 not supported. The dataset shows 4,601 lakes nationally judged to that same depth.
The country's assessed lakes are most often judged on 1 use; 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 | 5.8k | 2.2k | 2.4k | 1.5k | 1.7k |
| Mixed | Not possible | 3.5k | 1.7k (this record) | 1.5k | 1.3k |
| None supported | 2.6k | 1.2k | 462 | 315 | 110 |
Ringed cell: Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m). Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) is one of 7 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Ohio, and one of 7 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 2,544.98 square miles (1,628,787 acres) it ranks 4th 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 3 lakes with a larger one.
Awaiting a filing
The state has not yet filed a definitive aquatic-life verdict for this record; that field populates when it reports it in a future Integrated Report cycle.
In context
Where Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) 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
2,545 Top 1% larger than 99%+ 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
1 Longer than most more listed causes than 49% 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 Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m). Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Ohio context
ATTAINS carries 7 lake-type waterbodies in Ohio, 7 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 0 fully supporting. Among the 7 indexed units there, Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m) ranks 7th by listed-cause count (one listed cause) and 1st by assessed size among the 7 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (7 statewide) . Its listed causes include PCBs in Fish Tissue, which also appears among Ohio's most-filed impairment causes (led by PCBs in Fish Tissue).
| Other large assessed lakes in Ohio | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Lake Erie Western Basin Open Water (>3m) Not Supporting | 337,472 |
| Lake Erie Sandusky Basin Open Water (>3m) Not Supporting | 231,494 |
| Lake Erie Sandusky Basin Shoreline (<=3m) Not Supporting | 43,526 |
| Lake Erie Western Basin Shoreline (<=3m) Not Supporting | 30,643 |
| Lake Erie Central Basin Shoreline (<=3m) Not Supporting | 8,570 |
| Lake Erie Islands Shoreline (<=3m) Not Supporting | 3,194 |
Peers near Lake Erie Central Basin Open Water (>3m)'s size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (1,628,787 acres here).
- Iliamna Lake · 960,000 acres · AK
- Gilbert Bay · 559,424 acres · UT
- Gunnison Bay · 384,588 acres · UT
- Lake Sakakawea · 318,821 acres · ND
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (1 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- Aaron · 1 causes · MN
- Aaron River Reservoir · 1 causes · MA
- Abbotts Creek (including Lexington-Thomasville Water Supply Reservoir at normal reservoir elevation, Tom-A-Lex Lake) · 1 causes · NC
- Abeniki Lake · 1 causes · NH
What to do with this record
- The fish-consumption use is assessed as not supporting. Before eating fish from this Great Lakes waterbody, 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 OHLE041202000303. 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.