Connecticut lake · state assessment record
Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam)
Assessment decisions reported by Connecticut to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2014 reporting cycle.
- 82
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam), a lake in Connecticut, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with one listed impairment cause in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2014). By assessed acreage it sits above the national median by assessed acreage (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
- P66
- 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 Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam)'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 Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam) nationally is assessed size: 82.1 acres, larger than 66% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
Not one verdict, several
This record splits: Not Supporting on recreation, Fully Supporting on aquatic life. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam): Category 4C reading
Category 4C marks impairment from pollution that is not a pollutant (for example habitat or flow alteration) on Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam). A classic TMDL load model often does not apply; the cause list should name the non-pollutant stressor.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam) 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, Connecticut carries 182 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam) 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. Connecticut filed its own confidence on the 2 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Habitat for Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | Aquatic-life or related | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Recreation | Recreation | Not Supporting Filer confidence: Good |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Insufficient Information Filer confidence: Good |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state listed as impairing designated uses of this lake, with the cycle each was first listed. None is a pollutant, so none carries a TMDL cleanup plan.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-Native Aquatic Plants | Recreation | 2016 | Not applicable (non-pollutant); filed TMDL priority Low |
Probable sources
Connecticut listed the source of the impairment as unknown. That is the state's own filed value, not a gap in this record: the cause has been identified, the origin has not.
Reading the record
Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam): Category 4C reading
4C Category 4C: impaired by a non-pollutant; TMDL programme does not apply
Connecticut filed this assessment unit as Category 4C: the impairment is not caused by a pollutant, so the Clean Water Act 303(d) cleanup-plan (TMDL) programme, which allocates pollutant loads, does not apply here.
A 4C listing is still an impairment finding about designated uses; it is not a clean bill of health. How listing and cleanup work.
Scale and rank
Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam) is one of 182 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Connecticut, and one of 97 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 82 assessed acres it ranks 13,293rd 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 13,292 lakes with a larger one.
Still unfiled
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 Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam) 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
82 Top 34% larger than 66% 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 Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam). Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Connecticut context
ATTAINS carries 182 lake-type waterbodies in Connecticut, 44 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 95 fully supporting. Among the 97 indexed units there, Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam) ranks 35th by listed-cause count (one listed cause) and 55th by assessed size among the 97 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (44 statewide) . Its listed causes (Non-Native Aquatic Plants) sit outside Connecticut's top-five list, which is led by Algae.
| Other large assessed lakes in Connecticut | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Candlewood, Lake (New Fairfield/Danbury/Sherman/New Milford) Fully Supporting | 5,086 |
| Lillinonah, Lake (Newtown/Southbury/Bridgewater/Brookfield) Not Supporting | 1,595 |
| Bantam Lake (Litchfield/Morris) Not Supporting | 955 |
| Colebrook River (Reservoir) Lake (Colebrook) Not Assessed | 852 |
| Pachaug Pond (Griswold) Fully Supporting | 837 |
| Saugatuck Reservoir (Weston/Easton/Redding) Fully Supporting | 823 |
Peers near Pickerel Lake (Colchester/East Haddam)'s size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (82 acres here).
- Black Lake · 82 acres · WI
- Susan · 82 acres · MN
- Russia Brook (above Milton) · 82 acres · NJ
- Scribner · 82 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 CT4710-06-1-L1_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.