New Mexico reservoir · state assessment record
Ute Reservoir
Assessment decisions reported by New Mexico to EPA under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), last assessed in the 2026 reporting cycle.
- 5,988
- Assessed acres
- Reservoir
- Water type
- 179,600.0 acre-ft
- Reservoir Storage (provisional)
This waterbody in one line
Ute Reservoir, a reservoir in New Mexico, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with one listed impairment cause in the state's most recent Integrated Report cycle (2026). By assessed acreage it sits among the largest 1% of assessed lakes nationally (38,628 lakes with a filed area); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (one listed cause vs 23,610 assessed lakes). New Mexico rules it not supporting for warmwater aquatic life, while other aquatic-life uses are supported. A USGS gauge tracks its reservoir storage daily.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P99
- Assessed size nationally
- P20
- Shorter cause list
- Not Supporting
- aquatic-life or related
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.
Ute Reservoir 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 Ute Reservoir nationally is assessed size: 5,988 acres, larger than 99% of the 38,628 lake-type units with an area on file.
A split ruling across uses
This record splits: Not Supporting on aquatic life, Fully Supporting on recreation. The divergence is inside the designated-use matrix, not a single all-or-nothing label.
Ute Reservoir: Category 5, TMDL still owed
Category 5 is the Integrated Report band where a TMDL (or equivalent) is still expected for Ute Reservoir. 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 Ute Reservoir 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, New Mexico carries 176 filed lake-type waterbodies in the August 2026 extract, and this page renders the assessment record EPA assigned to Ute Reservoir 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Livestock Watering | Other | Fully Supporting |
| Primary Contact | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Warmwater Aquatic Life | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Wildlife Habitat | Aquatic-life or related | Fully Supporting |
| Industrial Water Supply | Other | Not Assessed |
| Public Water Supply | Drinking-water supply designation | Not Assessed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury - Fish Consumption Advisory | Warmwater Aquatic Life | 2004 | TMDL priority: Medium |
Reading the record
Where Ute Reservoir sits among peers
9 of 13 New Mexico lakes assessed this deeply also came out mixed
New Mexico ruled definitively on 4 designated uses at Ute Reservoir and found 1 of 4 not supported. The dataset shows 13 New Mexico lakes judged to that same depth.
New Mexico's assessed lakes are most often judged on 5 or more uses; this one was judged on 4.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All supported | 3 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| Mixed | Not possible | 1 | 0 | 9 (this record) | 29 |
| None supported | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ringed cell: Ute Reservoir. Source: EPA ATTAINS, Reporting cycles 1987–2026.
Scale and rank
Ute Reservoir is one of 176 lake-type waterbodies reported to EPA from New Mexico, and one of 58 whose reported record carries enough populated assessment or gauge data for this site to list and index it. At 5,988 assessed acres it ranks 524th 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 523 lakes with a larger one.
Reservoir storage
A USGS gauge tracks this reservoir's storage daily, and the latest reading is 3,600.00 acre-ft less than the reading 30 days earlier, against a 365-day observed range of 24,400.0 acre-ft. 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.
Reservoir storage: 365-day record
Daily reservoir storage values from USGS gauge 07226800 (Ute Reservoir Near Logan, Nm), 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
- 179,600.0 acre-ft 3600acre-ft vs 30 days earlier
- 2026-08-15 · Provisional, subject to USGS revision
Reservoir storage: 365-day record
Subscribe to reservoir storage updates for Ute Reservoir (RSS)
185 of the 365 daily values in this window (51%) are provisional and subject to USGS revision; USGS has approved this gauge's record through 2026-02-11.
Of the 365 daily values in this record, 6 were estimated by USGS rather than measured. USGS marks these individually; approval and estimation are separate judgements and a value can carry both.
Full gauge record: USGS monitoring location 07226800
In context
Where Ute Reservoir 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
5,988 Top 1% larger than 99% 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 Ute Reservoir. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share.
In context
New Mexico context
ATTAINS carries 176 lake-type waterbodies in New Mexico, 46 assessed as not supporting at least one use and 28 fully supporting. Among the 58 indexed units there, Ute Reservoir ranks 24th by listed-cause count (one listed cause) and 3rd by assessed size among the 58 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (46 statewide) . Its listed causes include Mercury - Fish Consumption Advisory, which also appears among New Mexico's most-filed impairment causes (led by Nutrients).
| Other large assessed lakes in New Mexico | Assessed acres |
|---|---|
| Navajo Reservoir Not Supporting | 12,680 |
| Elephant Butte Reservoir Not Supporting | 10,909 |
| South Lordsburg Playa Not Assessed | 7,412 |
| Heron Reservoir Not Supporting | 4,497 |
| Laguna del Pero Fully Supporting | 4,477 |
| Caballo Reservoir Not Supporting | 4,441 |
Peers near Ute Reservoir's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (5,988 acres here).
- Newnans Lake · 5,974 acres · FL
- Toledo Bend Reservoir · 5,968 acres · TX
- Grenada Lake · 6,011 acres · MS
- Laurel River Lake · 5,963 acres · KY
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
- 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 NM-2302_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.