Oklahoma lake · state assessment record
Spavinaw Lake
Assessment decisions reported by Oklahoma to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2024 reporting cycle.
- 1,584
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
- Hypereutrophic
- Reported trophic class
- 25,720.0 acre-ft
- Reservoir Storage (provisional)
This waterbody in one line
Spavinaw Lake, a lake in Oklahoma, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 3 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2024). By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 5% by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (3 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting. Fish consumption is assessed as fully supporting. A USGS gauge tracks its reservoir storage daily.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P96
- Assessed size nationally
- P5
- 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.
Spavinaw Lake 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 Spavinaw Lake nationally is assessed size: 1,584 acres, larger than 96% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
Mixed use determinations
This record splits: Not Supporting on 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.
Spavinaw Lake: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Spavinaw 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 Spavinaw Lake 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, Oklahoma carries 456 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Spavinaw Lake without modification. See our methodology for reporting-unit limits and gauge linking rules.
The record
Assessment entries
Fully Supporting and Not Supporting are the state's definitive verdicts; other entries mean the use was not conclusively assessed in this cycle. The latest monitoring Oklahoma filed against this record runs through 2023. Oklahoma filed its own confidence on the 5 definitive verdicts it rated: Good and Excellent. That rating is the filer's, in EPA's own field, and EPA publishes no definition of the four words it offers.
| Assessment entry | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Aesthetic | Other | Not Supporting Filer confidence: Good on other public health indicators; Excellent on physical/chemical |
| Agriculture | Other | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Excellent |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Fully Supporting Filer confidence: Excellent |
| Fish and Wildlife Propagation-Warm Water Aquatic Community Subcategory | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting Filer confidence: Good on biological; Excellent on physical/chemical |
| Public and Private Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Not Supporting Filer confidence: Good on pathogen indicators; Excellent on physical/chemical |
| Primary Body Contact Recreation | Recreation | Insufficient Information Filer confidence: Good on physical/chemical; Excellent on pathogen indicators |
| Sws-Sensitive Water Supply | Other | Not Assessed |
Not every entry above is a designated use: Sws-Sensitive Water Supply is an antidegradation protection class, not a designated use. The state files it in the ATTAINS use column, so it carries whatever verdict the state recorded against it.
The record
Listed impairment causes
Causes the state 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dissolved Oxygen | Fish and Wildlife Propagation-Warm Water Aquatic Community Subcategory | 2000 | None reported |
| Phosphorus, Total | Aesthetic | 2002 | TMDL approved |
| Chlorophyll-a | Public and Private Water Supply | 2008 | None reported |
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.
- Dissolved Oxygen
- Animal Feeding Operations (NPS) (suspected) Grazing in Riparian or Shoreline Zones (suspected) On-Site Treatment Systems (Septic Systems and Similar Decentralized Systems) (suspected) Rangeland Grazing (suspected) Wastes From Pets (suspected) Wildlife Other Than Waterfowl (suspected)
- Phosphorus, Total
- Animal Feeding Operations (NPS) (suspected) Impacts From Land Application of Wastes (suspected) Sources Outside State Jurisdiction or Borders (suspected)
- Chlorophyll-a
- Animal Feeding Operations (NPS) (suspected) Impacts From Land Application of Wastes (suspected) Sources Outside State Jurisdiction or Borders (suspected)
Oklahoma also recorded the source of at least one listing here as unknown, including for Dissolved Oxygen; Phosphorus, Total; and Chlorophyll-a.
Reading the record
Where Spavinaw Lake sits among peers
91% of Oklahoma's lakes assessed this deeply also came out mixed (the standard result at this depth, not a distinction)
Oklahoma ruled definitively on 5 designated uses at Spavinaw Lake and found 3 of 5 not supported. The dataset shows 101 Oklahoma lakes judged to that same depth.
Oklahoma's assessed lakes are most often judged on 5 or more uses, as this one was.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All supported | 13 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 6 | 12 | 30 | 92 (this record) |
| None supported | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ringed cell: Spavinaw Lake. Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Spavinaw Lake is one of 456 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Oklahoma, and one of 173 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 1,584 assessed acres it ranks 1,625th 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 1,624 lakes with a larger one.
Reservoir storage
A USGS gauge tracks this lake's reservoir storage daily, and the latest reading is 720.00 acre-ft less than the reading 30 days earlier, against a 365-day observed range of 2,570.0 acre-ft. The state has not yet filed a definitive recreation verdict for this record; that field populates when it reports it 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.
Reservoir storage: 365-day record
Daily reservoir storage values from USGS gauge 07191300 (Spavinaw Lake at Spavinaw, Ok), shown weekly. Readings are daily-batch snapshots, not real-time conditions. Each daily value is a single reading taken at 24:00, not a daily mean. It is the only daily statistic USGS files for this gauge.
- Latest reading
- 25,720.0 acre-ft 720acre-ft vs 30 days earlier
- 2026-08-15 · Provisional, subject to USGS revision
Reservoir storage: 365-day record
Subscribe to reservoir storage updates for Spavinaw Lake (RSS)
263 of the 364 daily values in this window (72%) are provisional and subject to USGS revision; USGS has approved this gauge's record through 2025-11-24.
Full gauge record: USGS monitoring location 07191300
In context
Where Spavinaw 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
1,584 Top 4% larger than 96% 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 Spavinaw Lake. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Oklahoma context
ATTAINS carries 456 lake-type waterbodies in Oklahoma, 153 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 45 fully supporting. Among the 173 indexed units there, Spavinaw Lake ranks 22nd by listed-cause count (3 listed causes) and 65th by assessed size among the 170 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (153 statewide) . Its listed causes include Dissolved Oxygen and Chlorophyll-a, which also appear among Oklahoma's most-filed impairment causes (led by Mercury). It also lists Phosphorus, Total, outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in Oklahoma | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Grand Lake Site 12 Not Supporting | 46,500 |
| Grand Lake Site 13 Not Supporting | 46,500 |
| Grand Lake Site 14 Fully Supporting | 46,500 |
| Grand Lake Site 15 Fully Supporting | 46,500 |
| Robert S. Kerr Lake Not Supporting | 43,380 |
| Texoma Lake, Red River Arm, Lower Not Supporting | 31,081 |
Peers near Spavinaw Lake's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (1,584 acres here).
- Lake Maloney · 1,584 acres · NE
- Town Creek (Lake Guntersville) · 1,584 acres · AL
- Mormon Reservoir · 1,584 acres · ID
- Washburn · 1,585 acres · MN
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
- Storage is a volume in acre-feet, not a water level, and it moves with seasonal drawdown and release schedules as well as inflow. How to read gauge data
- 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 OK121600050020_00. 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.