Kentucky reservoir · state assessment record
Shelby Lake
Assessment decisions reported by Kentucky to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2024 reporting cycle.
- 116
- Assessed acres
- Lake / Reservoir / Pond
- Water type
- Hypereutrophic
- Reported trophic class
This waterbody in one line
Shelby Lake, a reservoir in Kentucky, 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 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 not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P73
- Assessed size nationally
- P20
- Shorter cause list
- Not 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.
How Shelby Lake reads against the filed 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 Shelby Lake nationally is assessed size: 116 acres, larger than 73% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
No ruled-on use clears the bar
On the uses this filer ruled on, aquatic life, every determination is Not Supporting. That is a use-by-use reading of the filed record, not a single overall lake grade.
Shelby Lake: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Shelby Lake. Read the listed causes and any cleanup actions filed beside them before treating the overall status tile as a finished restoration story.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Shelby Lake 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, Kentucky carries 141 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Shelby 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Warm Water Aquatic Habitat | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| 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 | Insufficient Information |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators | Warm Water Aquatic Habitat | 1988 | TMDL priority: Low |
Reading the record
Where Shelby Lake sits among peers
40% of Kentucky's lakes assessed this deeply also had no use supported
Kentucky ruled definitively on a single designated use at Shelby Lake and found it not supported. The dataset shows 35 Kentucky lakes judged to that same depth.
Kentucky's assessed lakes are most often judged on 2 uses; this one was judged on 1.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All supported | 21 | 16 | 13 | 5 | 2 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 26 | 15 | 7 | 4 |
| None supported | 14 (this record) | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Ringed cell: Shelby Lake. Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Shelby Lake is one of 141 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Kentucky, and one of 108 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 116 assessed acres it ranks 10,591st 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 10,590 lakes with a larger one.
Open in the register
The state has not yet filed a definitive fish-consumption verdict and a definitive recreation verdict for this record; those fields populate when it reports them in a future Integrated Report cycle.
Reported trophic class
Hypereutrophic 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 Shelby 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
116 Top 27% larger than 73% 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 Shelby 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. Among the 108 indexed units there, Shelby Lake ranks 49th by listed-cause count (one listed cause) and 52nd by assessed size among the 108 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (72 statewide) . Its listed causes include Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators, which also appears among Kentucky's most-filed impairment causes (led by Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators).
| 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 |
Peers near Shelby Lake's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (116 acres here).
- Ind-Ky Electric Corp. Tailings Pond · 116 acres · IN
- Iowa Lake · 116 acres · IA
- Mud Lake and Round Brake · 116 acres · AR
- Norwich Pond · 116 acres · MA
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 KY-1705. 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.