Vermont lake · state assessment record
Richville
Assessment decisions reported by Vermont to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2016 reporting cycle.
- 129
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Richville, a lake in Vermont, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 3 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2016). By assessed acreage it sits in the upper quartile by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (3 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Vermont rules it not supporting for aquatic habitat to support aquatic biota, wildlife, or plant life, while other aquatic-life uses are supported. Fish consumption is assessed as fully supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P75
- Assessed size nationally
- P5
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- aquatic-life or related
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 Richville'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: in-state cause rank
Inside Vermont, cause-list rank is the local separator: Richville is 40 of 712 indexed units by listed-cause count, toward the top of that state's filed lists.
Mixed use determinations
This record splits: Not Supporting on recreation, aquatic life, Fully Supporting on fish consumption. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
Longer than most cause lists
3 listed causes puts this unit above 90% of assessed lake-type records by list length. Treat that as a coding-and-sampling signal: states that split pollutants finely mint longer lists without proving worse water.
Richville: Category 4C reading
Category 4C marks impairment from pollution that is not a pollutant (for example habitat or flow alteration) on Richville. 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 Richville is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Vermont carries 712 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Richville 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 Biota and Wildlife That May Utilize or Are Present in the Waters | Aquatic-life or related | Fully Supporting |
| Aquatic Habitat to Support Aquatic Biota, Wildlife, or Plant Life | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Fully Supporting |
| The Use of Waters for Boating and Related Recreational Uses | Recreation | Not Supporting |
| The Use of Waters for Fishing and Related Recreational Uses | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| The Use of Waters for Swimming and Other Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Supporting |
| The Use of Waters for the Enjoyment of Aesthetic Conditions | Other | Not Supporting |
| The Use of Water for Irrigation of Crops and Other Agricultural Uses | Other | Not Assessed |
| The Use of the Water for Public Water Source | Drinking-water supply designation | 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. None is a pollutant, so none carries a TMDL cleanup plan.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curly-Leaf Pondweed | Aquatic Habitat to Support Aquatic Biota, Wildlife, or Plant Life; The Use of Waters for the Enjoyment of Aesthetic Conditions; The Use of Waters for Swimming and Other Primary Contact Recreation; The Use of Waters for Boating and Related Recreational Uses Also assessed as meeting: Aquatic Biota and Wildlife That May Utilize or Are Present in the Waters | Not reported | Not applicable (non-pollutant) |
| Eurasian Water Milfoil, Myriophyllum Spicatum | Aquatic Habitat to Support Aquatic Biota, Wildlife, or Plant Life; The Use of Waters for the Enjoyment of Aesthetic Conditions; The Use of Waters for Swimming and Other Primary Contact Recreation; The Use of Waters for Boating and Related Recreational Uses Also assessed as meeting: Aquatic Biota and Wildlife That May Utilize or Are Present in the Waters | Not reported | Not applicable (non-pollutant) |
| Water Chestnut | Aquatic Habitat to Support Aquatic Biota, Wildlife, or Plant Life; The Use of Waters for the Enjoyment of Aesthetic Conditions; The Use of Waters for Swimming and Other Primary Contact Recreation; The Use of Waters for Boating and Related Recreational Uses Also assessed as meeting: Aquatic Biota and Wildlife That May Utilize or Are Present in the Waters | Not reported | Not applicable (non-pollutant) |
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.
- Curly-Leaf Pondweed
- Other Marina/Boating on-Vessel Discharges (confirmed)
- Eurasian Water Milfoil, Myriophyllum Spicatum
- Other Marina/Boating on-Vessel Discharges (confirmed)
- Water Chestnut
- Other Marina/Boating on-Vessel Discharges (confirmed)
Reading the record
Richville: Category 4C reading
4C Category 4C: impaired by a non-pollutant; TMDL programme does not apply
Vermont 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
Richville is one of 712 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Vermont, and one of 712 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 129 assessed acres it ranks 9,873rd 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 9,872 lakes with a larger one.
Reported trophic class
Vermont 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 Richville 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
129 Top 25% larger than 75% 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
3 Longer than most more listed causes than 90% 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 Richville. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Vermont context
ATTAINS carries 712 lake-type waterbodies in Vermont, 154 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 558 fully supporting. Among the 712 indexed units there, Richville ranks 40th by listed-cause count (3 listed causes) and 103rd by assessed size among the 712 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (154 statewide) . Its listed causes include Eurasian Water Milfoil, Myriophyllum Spicatum, which also appears among Vermont's most-filed impairment causes (led by Eurasian Water Milfoil, Myriophyllum Spicatum). It also lists Curly-Leaf Pondweed and Water Chestnut, outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in Vermont | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Champ-Northeast Arm Not Supporting | 57,022 |
| Champ-Main Lake Not Supporting | 37,809 |
| Champ-Isle La Motte Not Supporting | 20,962 |
| Champ-Malletts Bay Not Supporting | 12,049 |
| Champ-Port Henry Not Supporting | 8,372 |
| Champ-Missisquoi Bay Not Supporting | 6,398 |
Peers near Richville's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (129 acres here).
- Chandler Lake · 129 acres · OK
- Forest Lake · 129 acres · NY
- Holden Reservoir 1 · 129 acres · MA
- Middleton Pond · 129 acres · MA
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (3 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- 67th St. Beach · 3 causes · IL
- Abiquiu Reservoir · 3 causes · NM
- Absecon Creek (AC Reserviors) (gage to SB) · 3 causes · NJ
- Absecon Creek (below gage) · 3 causes · NJ
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 VT03-10L01. 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.