Minnesota lake · tribal assessment record
Perch Lake (North Basin)
Assessment decisions reported by Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota (Fond du Lac Band) to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2024 reporting cycle.
- 392
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
- Mesotrophic
- Reported trophic class
This waterbody in one line
Perch Lake (North Basin), a lake in Minnesota, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with one listed impairment cause in the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band)'s most recent Integrated Report cycle (2024). By assessed acreage it sits in the upper quartile by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (one listed cause vs 23,610 assessed lakes). The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band) rules aquatic life fully supporting, and aquatic life: subsistence fishing (netting) not supported.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P89
- Assessed size nationally
- P20
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- aquatic-life or related
Assessment verdicts are the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band)'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.
Perch Lake (North Basin) against the ATTAINS 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 Perch Lake (North Basin) nationally is assessed size: 392 acres, larger than 89% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
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.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Perch Lake (North Basin) 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, Minnesota carries 13,176 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Perch Lake (North Basin) 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 Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band)'s definitive verdicts; other entries mean the use was not conclusively assessed in this cycle. The latest monitoring the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band) filed against this record runs through 2024. For the definitive verdicts on this record, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band) filed the assessment basis as Monitored Data. Those are EPA's own words, not PlainLakes' summary of them.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatic Life: Subsistence Fishing (Netting) | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Aquatic Life: Warm Water Fisheries | Aquatic-life or related | Fully Supporting |
| Cultural: Aesthetic Waters | Cultural use | Fully Supporting |
| Cultural: Wild Rice Areas | Cultural use | Fully Supporting |
| Recreation: Primary Contact Recreational | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Wildlife | Other | Not Supporting |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band) 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 | Wildlife, Aquatic Life: Subsistence Fishing (Netting) | 2024 | None reported |
Reading the record
Where Perch Lake (North Basin) sits among peers
38% of Minnesota's lakes assessed this deeply also came out mixed
The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band) ruled definitively on 6 designated uses at Perch Lake (North Basin) and found 2 of 6 not supported. The dataset shows 26 Minnesota lakes judged to that same depth.
Minnesota's assessed lakes are most often judged on 1 use; this one was judged on 6.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All supported | 1.4k | 169 | 7 | 1 | 16 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 526 | 341 | 17 | 10 (this record) |
| None supported | 682 | 159 | 62 | 0 | 0 |
Ringed cell: Perch Lake (North Basin). Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Perch Lake (North Basin) is one of 13,176 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Minnesota, and one of 1,939 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 392 assessed acres it ranks 4,421st 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 4,420 lakes with a larger one.
Still unfiled
The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band) 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.
In context
Where Perch Lake (North Basin) 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
392 Top 11% larger than 89% 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 Perch Lake (North Basin). Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Minnesota context
ATTAINS carries 13,176 lake-type waterbodies in Minnesota, 1,798 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 1,566 fully supporting. Among the 1,939 indexed units there, Perch Lake (North Basin) ranks 834th by listed-cause count (one listed cause) and 671st by assessed size among the 1,930 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (1,798 statewide) . Its listed causes (Mercury) sit outside Minnesota's top-five list, which is led by Mercury in Fish Tissue.
| Other large assessed lakes in Minnesota | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Superior Not Supporting | 13,182,720 |
| Lake of the Woods Not Supporting | 301,348 |
| Red (Lower Red) Not reported | 164,699 |
| Lower Red Lake Fully Supporting | 164,689 |
| Mille Lacs Not Supporting | 128,076 |
| Red (Upper Red) Not Supporting | 119,279 |
Peers near Perch Lake (North Basin)'s size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (392 acres here).
- Archibald Lake · 392 acres · WI
- Laguna Gatuna · 392 acres · NM
- Little Eau Pleine Flowage · 393 acres · WI
- Lipsett Lake · 393 acres · WI
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (1 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- 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
- Academy Brook II Dam · 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 Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (Fond du Lac Band)'s reported decisions for assessment unit FDL_114A. 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.