Mississippi reservoir · state assessment record
Tunica Cutoff
Assessment decisions reported by Mississippi to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2018 reporting cycle.
- 3,719
- Assessed acres
- Lake / Reservoir / Pond
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
Tunica Cutoff, a reservoir in Mississippi, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 3 listed impairment causes in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2018). 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.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P98
- 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.
How Tunica Cutoff 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 Tunica Cutoff nationally is assessed size: 3,719 acres, larger than 98% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
Every filed use falls short
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.
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.
Tunica Cutoff: Category 4A reading
Category 4A means a TMDL (or equivalent) is already approved for the impairment on Tunica Cutoff. The remaining work is implementation and tracking, read the cleanup-standing and cause rows for what the state already committed to address.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for Tunica Cutoff 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, Mississippi carries 114 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Tunica Cutoff 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 Support | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) | Aquatic Life Support | 1998 | TMDL approved |
| Nitrogen | Aquatic Life Support | 1998 | TMDL approved |
| Phosphorus | Aquatic Life Support | 1998 | TMDL approved |
Probable sources
Mississippi listed the source of the impairment as unknown. That is the state's own filed value, not a gap in this record: the cause has been identified, the origin has not.
Reading the record
Tunica Cutoff: Category 4A reading
4A Category 4A: impaired, TMDL completed
Mississippi filed this assessment unit as Category 4A: impaired, with a pollutant-budget TMDL already completed under 303(d). The listing remains an impairment finding; the plan is on file rather than still awaiting write-up.
Scale and rank
Tunica Cutoff is one of 114 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from Mississippi, and one of 14 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 3,719 assessed acres it ranks 822nd 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 821 lakes with a larger one.
Not yet on record
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.
In context
Where Tunica Cutoff 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
3,719 Top 2% larger than 98% 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 Tunica Cutoff. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
Mississippi context
ATTAINS carries 114 lake-type waterbodies in Mississippi, 14 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 84 fully supporting. Among the 14 indexed units there, Tunica Cutoff ranks 2nd by listed-cause count (3 listed causes) and 3rd by assessed size among the 14 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (14 statewide) . Its listed causes include Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Nitrogen, which also appear among Mississippi's most-filed impairment causes (led by Mercury in Fish Tissue). It also lists Phosphorus, outside that top-five list.
| Other large assessed lakes in Mississippi | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Ross Barnett Reservoir Assessment unit MS507511 Fully Supporting | 20,737 |
| Sardis Lake Fully Supporting | 15,277 |
| Grenada Lake Assessment unit MS914611 Fully Supporting | 9,927 |
| Arkabutla Lake Fully Supporting | 6,279 |
| Grenada Lake Assessment unit MS915811 Not Supporting | 6,011 |
| Ross Barnett Reservoir Assessment unit MS507412 Fully Supporting | 5,483 |
Peers near Tunica Cutoff's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (3,719 acres here).
- Coosa River (Mitchell Lake) · 3,719 acres · AL
- Wright Patman Lake · 3,720 acres · TX
- Knife · 3,711 acres · MN
- Douglas Lake · 3,727 acres · MI
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 MS990211. 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.