New Jersey multi-water assessment unit · state assessment record
Sparta Junction tribs
Assessment decisions reported by New Jersey to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2022 reporting cycle.
- 115
- Acres of lake water
- Lake
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Sparta Junction tribs, a multi-water assessment unit in New Jersey, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 7 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2022). By assessed acreage it sits above the national median by assessed acreage (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (7 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P72
- Assessed size nationally
- P1
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- aquatic life
The state agency files this as one assessment unit spanning 114.63 acres of lake water and 19.59 miles of stream and river. The verdicts and listed causes below are reported for the whole unit, not for the lake water alone. 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.
Sparta Junction tribs 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: cause-list length
The standout filed fact is cause-list length: 7 listed impairment causes, a longer list than 99% of assessed lake-type units (n=23,610). List length tracks how states sample and code, not a severity score.
Every filed use falls short
On the uses this filer ruled on, recreation, aquatic life, every determination is Not Supporting. That is a use-by-use reading of the filed record, not a single overall lake grade.
Sparta Junction tribs: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Sparta Junction tribs. 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 Sparta Junction tribs is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
Large within New Jersey
Among New Jersey's 588 indexed units with an area, Sparta Junction tribs ranks 88 by assessed size, toward the large end of that state file.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, New Jersey carries 611 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Sparta Junction tribs 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 Life | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Aquatic Life - Trout | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Supporting |
| Public Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Not Supporting |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Insufficient Information |
| Secondary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Assessed |
| Shellfish Harvesting | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Assessed |
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state listed as impairing designated uses of this multi-water assessment unit, with the cycle each was first listed and the Clean Water Act action recorded against it.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature | Aquatic Life - Trout Also assessed as meeting: Aquatic Life | 2012 | TMDL priority: Medium |
| Dissolved Oxygen | Aquatic Life, Aquatic Life - Trout | 2016 | TMDL priority: Medium |
| Phosphorus, Total | Aquatic Life - Trout, Aquatic Life | 2016 | TMDL priority: Medium |
| Arsenic | Public Water Supply Also assessed as meeting: Aquatic Life - Trout, Aquatic Life | 2020 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Escherichia coli (E. coli) | Primary Contact Recreation | 2020 | TMDL approved |
| Index of Biological Integrity (Ibi) | Aquatic Life - Trout, Aquatic Life | 2020 | TMDL priority: Low |
| Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) | Public Water Supply | 2020 | TMDL priority: Medium |
Reading the record
What this co-filed unit covers
19.59 miles of stream and river co-filed on this unit
The state agency files this as one assessment unit spanning 114.63 acres of lake water and 19.59 miles of stream and river. The verdicts and listed causes below are reported for the whole unit, not for the lake water alone.
This page is about the lake water in the unit; counts and verdicts below cover the whole multi-water assessment unit. How multi-water units are filed.
Scale and rank
Sparta Junction tribs is one of 611 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from New Jersey, and one of 588 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 115 assessed acres it ranks 10,690th 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 10,689 lakes with a larger one.
Not yet on record
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 Sparta Junction tribs 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
115 Top 28% larger than 72% 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
7 Longer than most more listed causes than 99% 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 Sparta Junction tribs. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
New Jersey context
ATTAINS carries 611 lake-type waterbodies in New Jersey, 583 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 21 fully supporting. Among the 588 indexed units there, Sparta Junction tribs ranks 62nd by listed-cause count (7 listed causes) and 88th by assessed size among the 588 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (583 statewide) . Its listed causes include Phosphorus, Total; Arsenic; Escherichia coli (E. coli); and Index of Biological Integrity (Ibi), which also appear among New Jersey's most-filed impairment causes (led by Arsenic). It also lists Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in New Jersey | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Wanaque Reservior (below Monks gage) Not Supporting | 2,599 |
| Lake Hopatcong Not Supporting | 2,583 |
| Prescott Brook / Round Valley Reservior Not Supporting | 2,297 |
| Merrill Creek Not Supporting | 1,298 |
| Wallkill R / Lake Mohawk(above Sparta Sta) Not Supporting | 975 |
| Wanaque R/Greenwood Lk(aboveMonks gage) Not Supporting | 881 |
Peers near Sparta Junction tribs's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (115 acres here).
- Eagle · 115 acres · MN
- Minsi Lake-02040105001626 · 115 acres · PA
- Little Cowhorn · 115 acres · MN
- Butler · 115 acres · MN
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (7 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- Adder Pond · 7 causes · NH
- Arrow Lake · 7 causes · TN
- Barton Cove · 7 causes · MA
- Blue Heron Lagoon · 7 causes · MI
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 NJ02040105040050-01. 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.