Texas reservoir · state assessment record
Lake Wichita
Assessment decisions reported by Texas to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2024 reporting cycle.
- 2,058
- Assessed acres
- Reservoir
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Lake Wichita, a reservoir in Texas, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with one listed impairment cause in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2024). By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 5% by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (one listed cause vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as fully supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P97
- 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.
Reading Lake Wichita'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 Wichita nationally is assessed size: 2,058 acres, larger than 97% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
Lake Wichita: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Lake Wichita. Read the listed causes and any cleanup actions filed beside them before treating the overall status tile as a finished restoration story.
All ruled-on uses pass
The filed use determinations for recreation, aquatic life are all Fully Supporting. Where an overall IR category still flags the unit, look at the cause list and report standing rather than treating the use row as empty.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Lake Wichita 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, Texas carries 489 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Lake Wichita 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatic Life Use | Aquatic-life or related | Fully Supporting |
| General Use | Other | Not Supporting |
| Recreation Use | Recreation | Fully 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| pH, High | General Use | 2026 | 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.
- pH, High
- Internal Nutrient Recycling (suspected) Non-Point Source (suspected) Waterfowl (suspected)
Texas also recorded the source of at least one listing here as unknown, including for pH, High.
Reading the record
Where Lake Wichita sits among peers
31% of Texas's lakes assessed this deeply also came out mixed
Texas ruled definitively on 3 designated uses at Lake Wichita and found 1 of 3 not supported. The dataset shows 61 Texas lakes judged to that same depth.
Texas's assessed lakes are most often judged on 4 uses; 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 | 7 | 76 | 42 | 149 | 34 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 18 | 19 (this record) | 38 | 33 |
| None supported | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ringed cell: Lake Wichita. Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Lake Wichita is one of 489 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Texas, and one of 323 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 2,058 assessed acres it ranks 1,340th 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 1,339 lakes with a larger one.
Open in the register
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.
In context
Where Lake Wichita 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
2,058 Top 3% larger than 97% 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 Wichita. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Texas context
ATTAINS carries 489 lake-type waterbodies in Texas, 125 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 331 fully supporting. Among the 323 indexed units there, Lake Wichita ranks 78th by listed-cause count (one listed cause) and 159th by assessed size among the 323 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (125 statewide) . Its listed causes include pH, High, which also appears among Texas's most-filed impairment causes (led by Algae).
| Other large assessed lakes in Texas | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Lake Texoma Fully Supporting | 49,400 |
| Toledo Bend Reservoir Not Supporting | 41,046 |
| International Falcon Reservoir Fully Supporting | 36,817 |
| Sam Rayburn Reservoir Not Supporting | 28,238 |
| International Amistad Reservoir Fully Supporting | 21,328 |
| Lake Livingston Not Supporting | 18,238 |
Peers near Lake Wichita's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (2,058 acres here).
- Lasalle Cooling · 2,058 acres · IL
- Cecil M. Harden Reservoir · 2,060 acres · IN
- Lake Independence · 2,054 acres · MI
- Pike Bay · 2,053 acres · MN
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
- 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 TX-0219_01. 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.