Michigan lake · state assessment record
Lake Gogebic
Gogebic Co., Vicinity of Bergland and Lake Gogebic. Assessment decisions reported by Michigan to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2026 reporting cycle.
- 13,079
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
- Mesotrophic
- Reported trophic class
- 2.3 ft
- Gage Height (provisional)
This waterbody in one line
Lake Gogebic, a lake in Michigan, 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). 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). Aquatic life is assessed as fully supporting. Fish consumption is assessed as not supporting. A USGS gauge tracks its gage height daily.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P99
- Assessed size nationally
- P20
- Shorter cause list
- Fully 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 Lake Gogebic 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: assessed size
The number that most separates Lake Gogebic nationally is assessed size: 13,079 acres, larger than 99% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
A split ruling across uses
This record splits: Not Supporting on fish consumption, Fully Supporting on aquatic life. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
Lake Gogebic: Category 4A reading
Category 4A means a TMDL (or equivalent) is already approved for the impairment on Lake Gogebic. The remaining work is implementation and tracking, read the cleanup-standing and cause rows for what the state already committed to address.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Lake Gogebic 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, Michigan carries 4,307 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Lake Gogebic 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. Michigan filed 2024 as the year this waterbody was last monitored. For the definitive verdicts on this record, Michigan filed the assessment basis as Monitored Data. Those are EPA's own words, not PlainLakes' summary of them. Michigan filed its own confidence on the 6 definitive verdicts it rated: Good. That rating is the filer's, in EPA's own field, and EPA publishes no definition of the four words it offers.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Other | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Cold Water Fishery | Aquatic-life or related | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Industrial Water Supply | Other | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Navigation | Other | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Other Indigenous Aquatic Life and Wildlife | Aquatic-life or related | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Partial Body Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Assessed |
| Total Body Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Assessed |
| Warm Water Fishery | Aquatic-life or related | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 2000 | TMDL approved |
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 - Toxics (confirmed)
Reading the record
Lake Gogebic: Category 4A reading
4A Category 4A: impaired, TMDL completed
Michigan 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
Lake Gogebic is one of 4,307 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Michigan, and one of 776 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 13,079 assessed acres it ranks 244th 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 243 lakes with a larger one.
Water level
A USGS gauge tracks this lake's gage height daily, and the latest reading is 0.41 ft below the reading 30 days earlier, against a 365-day observed range of 2.8 ft. The state has not yet filed a definitive recreation 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.
Water level: 365-day record
Daily gage height values, feet above this gauge’s own local zero, not above sea level, from USGS gauge 04035995 (Lake Gogebic Near Bergland, Mi), shown weekly. Readings are daily-batch snapshots, not real-time conditions.
- Latest reading
- 2.3 ft 0.41000000000000014ft vs 30 days earlier
- 2026-08-15 · Provisional, subject to USGS revision
Water level: 365-day record
Subscribe to water level updates for Lake Gogebic (RSS)
88 of the 365 daily values in this window (24%) are provisional and subject to USGS revision; USGS has approved this gauge's record through 2026-05-20.
Full gauge record: USGS monitoring location 04035995
In context
Where Lake Gogebic 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
13,079 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 Gogebic. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Michigan context
ATTAINS carries 4,307 lake-type waterbodies in Michigan, 807 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 3,457 fully supporting. Among the 776 indexed units there, Lake Gogebic ranks 281st by listed-cause count (one listed cause) and 11th by assessed size among the 493 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (807 statewide) . Its listed causes include Mercury in Fish Tissue, which also appears among Michigan's most-filed impairment causes (led by Mercury in Fish Tissue).
| Other large assessed lakes in Michigan | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Lake Huron (Michigan Jurisdiction) Not Supporting | 5,815,360 |
| Lake Michigan South of Frankfort (Michigan Jurisdiction) Not Supporting | 5,665,920 |
| St. Marys River Not Supporting | 129,983 |
| Lake St. Clair (Michigan Jurisdiction) Not Supporting | 103,616 |
| Lake Erie (Michigan Jurisdiction) Not Supporting | 71,680 |
| Houghton Lake Not Supporting | 20,066 |
Peers near Lake Gogebic's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (13,079 acres here).
- Oconee Lake · 13,026 acres · GA
- Lake Livingston · 13,180 acres · TX
- San Luis Reservoir · 12,970 acres · CA
- Brownlee Reservoir, Lower (Porters Flat to Brownlee Dam) · 13,194 acres · ID
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 lake, check your state fish-advisory program for species-specific meal limits. Consumption status guide
- Water levels shown are daily snapshots. Seasonal drawdown and datum conventions matter when comparing levels. How to read level data
- 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 MI040201020404-03. 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.