Massachusetts lake · state assessment record
White Island Pond, East Basin
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.
- 165
- Assessed acres
- Lake, Freshwater
- Water type
This waterbody in one line
White Island Pond, East Basin, a lake in Massachusetts, is assessed as not supporting one or more designated uses, with 4 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 in the upper quartile by assessed acreage nationally (38,628 lakes); its impairment list is among the longest nationally (4 listed causes vs 23,610 assessed lakes). Aquatic life is assessed as not supporting.
- Not Supporting
- overall status
- P78
- Assessed size nationally
- P3
- 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.
Reading White Island Pond, East Basin's filed record
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: 4 listed impairment causes, a longer list than 95% of assessed lake-type units (n=23,610). List length tracks how states sample and code, not a severity score.
The uses disagree
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.
White Island Pond, East Basin: Category 4C reading
Category 4C marks impairment from pollution that is not a pollutant (for example habitat or flow alteration) on White Island Pond, East Basin. A classic TMDL load model often does not apply; the cause list should name the non-pollutant stressor.
Overall status: not supporting
The filer's overall status for White Island Pond, East Basin is Not Supporting. That tile summarizes the assessment unit; the designated-use rows and cause list are the evidence behind it.
Large assessed unit
At 165 acres, White Island Pond, East Basin clears the upper tercile of assessed lake-type units with an area on file (8,349 still larger). Size comparisons use the portal's deduplicated lake ranking population, not raw ATTAINS row counts.
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 White Island Pond, East Basin 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 definitive verdicts 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aesthetic | Other | Fully Supporting |
| Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | Aquatic-life or related | Not Supporting |
| Primary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Secondary Contact Recreation | Recreation | Fully Supporting |
| Fish Consumption | Fish-consumption or fishery | 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. None is a pollutant, so none carries a TMDL cleanup plan.
| Cause | Affected uses | First listed | Cleanup standing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curly-Leaf Pondweed | Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | 2022 | Not applicable (non-pollutant) |
| Eurasian Water Milfoil, Myriophyllum Spicatum | Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | 2022 | Not applicable (non-pollutant) |
| Fanwort | Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | 2022 | Not applicable (non-pollutant) |
| Swollen Bladderwort | Fish, Other Aquatic Life and Wildlife | 2022 | Not applicable (non-pollutant) |
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.
- Curly-Leaf Pondweed
- Introduction of Non-Native Organisms (Accidental or Intentional) (confirmed)
- Eurasian Water Milfoil, Myriophyllum Spicatum
- Introduction of Non-Native Organisms (Accidental or Intentional) (confirmed)
- Fanwort
- Introduction of Non-Native Organisms (Accidental or Intentional) (confirmed)
- Swollen Bladderwort
- Introduction of Non-Native Organisms (Accidental or Intentional) (confirmed)
Reading the record
White Island Pond, East Basin: Category 4C reading
4C Category 4C: impaired by a non-pollutant; TMDL programme does not apply
Massachusetts filed this assessment unit as Category 4C: the impairment is not caused by a pollutant, so the Clean Water Act 303(d) cleanup-plan (TMDL) programme, which allocates pollutant loads, does not apply here.
A 4C listing is still an impairment finding about designated uses; it is not a clean bill of health. How listing and cleanup work.
Scale and rank
White Island Pond, East Basin 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 165 assessed acres it ranks 8,350th 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 8,349 lakes with a larger one.
Open in the register
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 White Island Pond, East Basin 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
165 Top 22% larger than 78% 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
4 Longer than most more listed causes than 95% 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 White Island Pond, East Basin. 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, White Island Pond, East Basin ranks 101st by listed-cause count (4 listed causes) and 110th by assessed size among the 678 with an area filed; it sits in the not-supporting set (678 statewide) . Its listed causes include Fanwort, which also appears among Massachusetts's most-filed impairment causes (led by Mercury in Fish Tissue). It also lists Curly-Leaf Pondweed; Eurasian Water Milfoil, Myriophyllum Spicatum; and Swollen Bladderwort, outside that top-five list.
| 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 White Island Pond, East Basin's size or cause load
Similar assessed acres
Nearest filed extents (165 acres here).
- Dry Fork Lake · 165 acres · AR
- Flat · 165 acres · IL
- Fyre · 165 acres · IL
- Hominy Lake · 165 acres · OK
Similar cause load
Nearest listed-cause counts (4 here). Peers already in the acreage column are omitted.
- Agency Lake · 4 causes · OR
- Alachua Sink · 4 causes · FL
- American Falls Reservoir (Snake River) · 4 causes · ID
- Anderson & Carlton · 4 causes · IL
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 MA95166. 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.