Kentucky reservoir · state assessment record
Lower Thomas Lake
The assessment record reported by Kentucky to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), filed in the 2024 reporting cycle.
- 8.10
- Assessed acres
- Lake / Reservoir / Pond
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Lower Thomas Lake, a reservoir in Kentucky, was reported but not assessed in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2024). By assessed acreage it sits among the smaller assessed lakes nationally (38,628 lakes with a filed area).
- Not Assessed
- overall status
- P16
- Assessed size nationally
Assessment verdicts are the state agency's decisions as reported to EPA ATTAINS; PlainLakes renders them without modification.
Reading Lower Thomas Lake'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
What stands out first is how small the assessed unit is: 8.1 acres, smaller than 84% of the 38,628 lake-type units carrying an area.
IR category 3 on Lower Thomas Lake
The Integrated Report category filed for Lower Thomas Lake is 3. PlainLakes renders EPA's code without remapping it into a consumer grade.
Overall status: Not Assessed
ATTAINS overall status on this unit is “Not Assessed”. PlainLakes does not rewrite that vocabulary into a consumer score.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Kentucky carries 141 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Lower Thomas 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Not Assessed |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Assessed |
| Primary Contact Recreation Water | Recreation | Not Assessed |
| Secondary Contact Recreation Water | Recreation | Not Assessed |
| Warm Water Aquatic Habitat | Aquatic-life or related | Not Assessed |
The record
Listed impairment causes
The state reported this reservoir in its 2024 Integrated Report cycle but reached no assessment determination, so no causes are listed. The unit is recorded under EPA integrated-reporting Category 3: reviewed, with insufficient information to determine whether it meets water-quality standards. An undetermined waterbody is neither confirmed clean nor confirmed impaired.
Reading the record
What Lower Thomas Lake's record holds
Scale and rank
Lower Thomas Lake is one of 141 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Kentucky. It is not among the 108 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 8.10 assessed acres it ranks 32,361st 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 32,360 lakes with a larger one.
What this record holds
Kentucky filed this reservoir in its 2024 Integrated Report cycle but reached no determination, so the record holds that filing and its use rows, but no verdict, and with nothing judged, no impairment cause to track over time. The state has not yet filed a definitive fish-consumption verdict, a definitive recreation verdict, a definitive aquatic-life verdict, and 1 other for this record; those fields populate when it reports them in a future Integrated Report cycle.
Reported trophic class
Kentucky carried the trophic field for this assessment unit and filed it as unclassified, which records that no class was determined rather than that the water is unenriched. What the trophic scale measures.
In context
Where Lower Thomas 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
8 Top 84% larger than 16% 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
In both charts each bar is a band and taller bars hold more waterbodies; the dashed line and filled bar mark Lower Thomas Lake. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Kentucky context
ATTAINS carries 141 lake-type waterbodies in Kentucky, 72 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 57 fully supporting.
| Other large assessed lakes in Kentucky | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Lake Cumberland Not Supporting | 50,611 |
| Kentucky Lake Not Supporting | 48,725 |
| Lake Barkley Not Supporting | 39,298 |
| Barren River Lake Not Supporting | 9,461 |
| Green River Lake Fully Supporting | 8,438 |
| Cave Run Lake Not Supporting | 8,097 |
Lakes near Lower Thomas Lake's assessed acres
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (8.10 acres here).
- Beaver Pond · 8.10 acres · NY
- Chippewa Lake · 8.10 acres · WV
- Cranberry · 8.10 acres · MN
- Gilmore Pond · 8.10 acres · NY
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 KY-1413. 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.