Massachusetts lake · state assessment record
Sylvan Lake
Assessment decisions reported by Massachusetts to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2026 reporting cycle, a cycle that is open for public comment.
- 6.00
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Sylvan Lake, a lake in Massachusetts, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 2 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2026), a cycle that is open for public comment. By assessed acreage it sits among the smaller assessed lakes nationally (38,628 lakes with a filed area); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (2 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Fish consumption is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P12
- Assessed size nationally
- P10
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- fish consumption
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.
Sylvan 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
What stands out first is how small the assessed unit is: 6 acres, smaller than 88% of the 38,628 lake-type units carrying an area.
Every ruled-on use is not supporting
On the uses this filer ruled on, fish consumption, every determination is Not Supporting. That is a use-by-use reading of the filed record, not a single overall lake grade.
Sylvan Lake: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Sylvan Lake. Read the listed causes and any cleanup actions filed beside them before treating the overall status tile as a finished restoration story.
Longer than most cause lists
2 listed causes puts this unit above 80% 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.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Sylvan 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, Massachusetts carries 1,191 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Sylvan 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. For the one definitive verdict on this record, Massachusetts filed the assessment basis as Monitored Data. Those are EPA's own words, not PlainLakes' summary of them.
| Designated use | Group | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | Not Supporting |
| Aesthetic | Other | Not Assessed |
| Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | Aquatic-life or related | Not Assessed |
| Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Not Assessed |
| Secondary Contact Recreation | Recreation | 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 and the Clean Water Act action recorded against it.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chlordane in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 1996 | TMDL priority: Low |
| DDT in Fish Tissue | Fish Consumption | 1996 | TMDL priority: Low |
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.
- Chlordane in Fish Tissue
- Cercla Npl (Superfund) Sites (confirmed)
- DDT in Fish Tissue
- Cercla Npl (Superfund) Sites (confirmed)
Reading the record
Where Sylvan Lake sits among peers
95% of Massachusetts's lakes assessed this deeply also had no use supported (the standard result at this depth, not a distinction)
Massachusetts ruled definitively on a single designated use at Sylvan Lake and found it not supported. The dataset shows 298 Massachusetts lakes judged to that same depth.
Massachusetts's assessed lakes are most often judged on 1 use, 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 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 5 | 19 | 31 | 12 |
| None supported | 283 (this record) | 60 | 91 | 128 | 49 |
Ringed cell: Sylvan Lake. Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Sylvan Lake is one of 1,191 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Massachusetts, and one of 678 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 6.00 assessed acres it ranks 33,743rd 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 33,742 lakes with a larger one.
Open in the register
The state has not yet filed a definitive recreation verdict and a definitive aquatic-life verdict for this record; those fields populate when it reports them in a future Integrated Report cycle.
In context
Where Sylvan 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
6 Top 88% larger than 12% 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
2 Longer than most more listed causes than 80% 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 Sylvan Lake. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Massachusetts context
ATTAINS carries 1,191 lake-type waterbodies in Massachusetts, 678 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 40 fully supporting. Among the 678 indexed units there, Sylvan Lake ranks 370th by listed-cause count (2 listed causes) and 629th by assessed size among the 678 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (678 statewide) . Its listed causes (Chlordane in Fish Tissue and DDT in Fish Tissue) sit outside Massachusetts's top-five list, which is led by Mercury in Fish Tissue.
| Other large assessed lakes in Massachusetts | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Quabbin Reservoir Not Supporting | 24,010 |
| Wachusett Reservoir Not Supporting | 3,962 |
| Assawompset Pond Not Assessed | 2,034 |
| North Watuppa Pond Not Supporting | 1,728 |
| Long Pond Not Supporting | 1,728 |
| South Watuppa Pond Not Supporting | 1,473 |
Peers near Sylvan Lake's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (6.00 acres here).
- Acorn · 6.00 acres · IL
- Allen Lake · 6.00 acres · IN
- Androscoggin River (6) above Little Androscoggin · 6.00 acres · ME
- Arnold Lake · 6.00 acres · IN
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (2 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- 12th St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
- 31st St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
- 49th St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
- 57th St. Beach · 2 causes · IL
What to do with this record
- The fish-consumption use is assessed as not supporting. Before eating fish from this lake, check your state fish-advisory program for species-specific meal limits. 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 MA74021. 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.