State water-quality picture · #27 by reported lake-type waterbodies
Kansas lakes and reservoirs
Every figure on this page is computed from the assessment decisions Kansas reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b) (reporting cycles 2024), plus daily water-level observations from the U.S. Geological Survey.
- 328
- Reported waterbodies
- 241
- Not supporting a use
- 1
- Fish use not supporting
- 1
- Gauged lake
Kansas in one line
328 lake-type waterbodies in Kansas are reported to EPA ATTAINS across reporting cycles 2024: 241 assessed as not supporting at least one designated use, 77 fully supporting, and 10 without a definitive overall verdict. The most-listed impairment cause is Eutrophication, on 228 waterbodies.
- 328
- reported waterbodies
- 241
- not supporting a use
- 77
- fully supporting
- 76%
- of definitive verdicts impaired
An unassessed waterbody is neither confirmed clean nor confirmed impaired; states assess on multi-year cycles. 2 of those 77 fully supporting verdicts rest on designated uses this site does not report (irrigation, navigation and industrial water supply), with Kansas recording no verdict on fish consumption, recreation, aquatic life and drinking water. They are counted above because the state filed them, and excluded from the impaired share below because that figure compares states.
Kansas's mid-pack EPA ATTAINS lake-type picture
328 reported units and a mid-third ruled-impairment footing (76% not supporting) - neither inventory extreme nor load extreme on this extract.
Data updated 2026-08-17
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Kansas reported 328 lake-type waterbodies in Kansas in the August 2026 extract. See our methodology for filer attribution and multi-year reporting cycles.
Overall-status mix on Kansas's mid-size inventory
Every reported lake-type unit in Kansas falls into exactly one overall-status bucket. This bar is the inventory partition; the cause chart and national gauge below answer different questions.
Most-listed impairment causes in Kansas
Waterbodies carrying each listed cause, most first
- Eutrophication
Eutrophication
228 waterbodies
- Dissolved Oxygen 35
Dissolved Oxygen
35 waterbodies
- pH 27
pH
27 waterbodies
- Siltation 26
Siltation
26 waterbodies
- Sulfate 22
Sulfate
22 waterbodies
What this shows Eutrophication is the most-listed impairment cause in Kansas, on 228 of the lake-type waterbodies reported there.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
Kansas: 76% of ruled verdicts are not-supporting, against a national share of 53%, 1.4× the national rate.
Reporting practice
Kansas's waterbodies mostly carry a definitive verdict
Each reporting authority decides how much of the water it files to EPA it actually assesses in a cycle. That decision sets the denominator behind every count on this page.
Kansas holds the 27th-largest reported lake-type inventory in the country, 328 assessment units, carrying a definitive verdict on 96.3% of it. The counts above describe the 316 units carrying a verdict, not all 328 reported. Kansas has also retired 1 lake-type assessment unit, a superseded filing that is kept on the site but not counted here.
The states reporting at the nearest rates are South Dakota (95.4%) and Louisiana (97.4%).
Assessing more of an inventory is a reporting choice, set by cycle length, monitoring budget and how finely a state splits its waters into units. It is not a measure of water quality, and it is why a raw count from one state does not sit beside a raw count from another. How assessment coverage varies.
Kansas against every comparable state
Share of reported lake-type waterbodies carrying a definitive verdict
96.3% 7th of 47 higher than 40 of 47 states
the 47 comparable states, by definitive-verdict share
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycles 1987–2026
Each bar counts states whose definitive-verdict share falls in that 10-point band. The 47 states shown are those reporting at least 25 lake-type units; a share off a smaller inventory is precision the data does not have.
By size
Largest assessed lakes in Kansas
By assessed acreage as reported in ATTAINS. Acreage is the assessed unit's size, which can differ from a lake's full surface area.
| # | Waterbody | Assessed acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milford Lake Not Supporting | 16,000 |
| 2 | Tuttle Creek Lake Not Supporting | 15,380 |
| 3 | Waconda Lake Not Supporting | 12,602 |
| 4 | Perry Lake Not Supporting | 12,200 |
| 5 | Cheney Lake Not Supporting | 9,550 |
| 6 | John Redmond Lake Not Supporting | 9,400 |
| 7 | Wilson Lake Not Supporting | 9,040 |
| 8 | El Dorado Lake Not Supporting | 8,000 |
| 9 | Clinton Lake Not Supporting | 7,000 |
| 10 | Melvern Lake Not Supporting | 6,930 |
| 11 | Cedar Bluff Lake Not Supporting | 6,800 |
| 12 | Marion Lake Not Supporting | 6,700 |
By cause count
Most-listed waterbodies in Kansas
Waterbodies carrying the most listed impairment causes among the lake-type units reported by Kansas.
| # | Waterbody | Listed causes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hamilton Co. SFL Not Supporting | 6 |
| 2 | Antioch Park Lake Not Supporting | 5 |
| 2 | Atchison Co. SFL Not Supporting | 5 |
| 2 | Lake Meade State Park Not Supporting | 5 |
| 5 | Anthony City Lake Not Supporting | 4 |
| 5 | Brown Co. SFL Not Supporting | 4 |
| 5 | Herington Reservoir Not Supporting | 4 |
| 5 | Kingman Co. SFL Not Supporting | 4 |
| 5 | Lake Warnock (Atchison City Lake) Not Supporting | 4 |
| 5 | McPherson Co. SFL Not Supporting | 4 |
9 of the 10 rows in this table tie on the ranked value: 3 at 5 (rank 2), 6 at 4 (rank 5). Tied rows share a rank and are listed in no meaningful order; where a tie reaches the top the medal is shared, because nothing separates those rows.
Gauge network
Lakes with a daily level record in Kansas
Lakes with a linked USGS gauge and a daily water-level record. Readings are daily-batch snapshots, not real-time.
States with similar inventory scale or impairment load
Two EPA ATTAINS peer sets outside Kansas. The reporting-practice chart above stays on definitive-verdict share; these neighborhoods are cross-state nearest neighbors on register size and not-supporting counts.
Similar reported inventory
Nearest states by lake-type units on the register (328 here).
- Maine · 339 units · 11 off
- North Dakota · 340 units · 12 off
- Colorado · 344 units · 16 off
- Alabama · 304 units · 24 off
States with a similar not-supporting load
Nearest states by units assessed not supporting a use (241 here). Inventory peers above are omitted.
- Nebraska · 219 not supporting · 22 off
- South Carolina · 212 not supporting · 29 off
- California · 202 not supporting · 39 off
- Virginia · 181 not supporting · 60 off
Peers are nearest-neighbor matches on EPA ATTAINS register size and not-supporting counts among states with at least 25 reported units. Impairment peers skip states already listed in the inventory column so the two link sets stay distinct.
Using this state picture
- Comparisons across states hold on shares, not counts: 96.3% of the inventory reported from Kansas carries a definitive verdict, 7th of 47 comparable states. National rankings
- Fish-consumption verdicts here are assessment decisions. Species-level meal advice comes from the state fish-advisory program. Consumption guide
- Browse every named Kansas waterbody with a populated record. Browse waterbodies
PlainLakes renders state assessment decisions and federal gauge observations without modification.
Figures on this page are computed from the assessment decisions Kansas reported to EPA's ATTAINS system and from USGS National Water Information System daily values, no number is typed in by an editor. State counts aggregate every lake-type assessment unit reported by Kansas, including unnamed units that never receive their own page. 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.