State water-quality picture · #37 by reported lake-type waterbodies
Kentucky lakes and reservoirs
Every figure on this page is computed from the assessment decisions Kentucky reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b) (reporting cycles 1992–2024), plus daily water-level observations from the U.S. Geological Survey.
- 141
- Reported waterbodies
- 72
- Not supporting a use
- 23
- Fish use not supporting
- 3
- Gauged lakes
Kentucky in one line
141 lake-type waterbodies in Kentucky are reported to EPA ATTAINS across reporting cycles 1992–2024: 72 assessed as not supporting at least one designated use, 57 fully supporting, and 12 without a definitive overall verdict. The most-listed impairment cause is Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators, on 56 waterbodies.
- 141
- reported waterbodies
- 72
- not supporting a use
- 57
- fully supporting
- 56%
- of definitive verdicts impaired
An unassessed waterbody is neither confirmed clean nor confirmed impaired; states assess on multi-year cycles.
Kentucky's smaller reported lake-type inventory
At 141 units, Kentucky is in the lowest third of state lake-type registers. The charts below describe that compact filing set, not a national-scale inventory.
Data updated 2026-08-17
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Kentucky reported 141 lake-type waterbodies in Kentucky in the August 2026 extract. See our methodology for filer attribution and multi-year reporting cycles.
Overall-status split on Kentucky's compact register
Every reported lake-type unit in this smaller Kentucky filing set falls into exactly one overall-status bucket. The bar partitions 141 units; cause and gauge panels below stay separate.
Most-listed impairment causes in Kentucky
Waterbodies carrying each listed cause, most first
- Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators
Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators
56 waterbodies
- Mercury in Fish Tissue 17
Mercury in Fish Tissue
17 waterbodies
- Dissolved Oxygen 15
Dissolved Oxygen
15 waterbodies
- Organic Enrichment (Sewage) Biological Indicators 6
Organic Enrichment (Sewage) Biological Indicators
6 waterbodies
- Methylmercury 3
Methylmercury
3 waterbodies
What this shows Nutrient/Eutrophication Biological Indicators is the most-listed impairment cause in Kentucky, on 56 of the lake-type waterbodies reported there.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
Kentucky: 56% of ruled verdicts are not-supporting, against a national share of 53%, 1.1× the national rate.
Reporting practice
Kentucky'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.
Kentucky holds the 37th-largest reported lake-type inventory in the country, 141 assessment units, carrying a definitive verdict on 91.5% of it. The counts above describe the 129 units carrying a verdict, not all 141 reported. Kentucky has also retired 146 lake-type assessment units, superseded filings that are kept on the site but not counted here.
The states reporting at the nearest rates are Alabama (89.8%) and Utah (93.7%).
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.
Kentucky against every comparable state
Share of reported lake-type waterbodies carrying a definitive verdict
91.5% 11th of 47 higher than 36 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 Kentucky
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 | Lake Cumberland Not Supporting | 50,611 |
| 2 | Kentucky Lake Not Supporting | 48,725 |
| 3 | Lake Barkley Not Supporting | 39,298 |
| 4 | Barren River Lake Not Supporting | 9,461 |
| 5 | Green River Lake Fully Supporting | 8,438 |
| 6 | Cave Run Lake Not Supporting | 8,097 |
| 7 | Nolin Lake Fully Supporting | 6,024 |
| 8 | Laurel River Lake Not Supporting | 5,963 |
| 9 | Rough River Lake Not Supporting | 5,034 |
| 10 | Dale Hollow Lake Fully Supporting | 4,311 |
| 11 | Taylorsville Reservoir Not Supporting | 2,941 |
| 12 | Herrington Lake Not Supporting | 2,847 |
By cause count
Most-listed waterbodies in Kentucky
Waterbodies carrying the most listed impairment causes among the lake-type units reported by Kentucky.
| # | Waterbody | Listed causes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beaver Lake Not Supporting | 5 |
| 2 | Herrington Lake Not Supporting | 4 |
| 3 | Bullock Pen Lake Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Hematite Lake Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Lake Elmer Davis Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Taylorsville Reservoir Not Supporting | 3 |
| 7 | Boltz Lake Not Supporting | 2 |
| 7 | Carpenters Lake Not Supporting | 2 |
| 7 | Corbin City Reservoir Not Supporting | 2 |
| 7 | Corinth Lake Not Supporting | 2 |
8 of the 10 rows in this table tie on the ranked value: 4 at 3 (rank 3), 4 at 2 (rank 7). 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 Kentucky
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 Kentucky. 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 (141 here).
Comparable not-supporting counts
Nearest states by units assessed not supporting a use (72 here). Inventory peers above are omitted.
- Louisiana · 64 not supporting · 8 off
- Colorado · 89 not supporting · 17 off
- North Carolina · 90 not supporting · 18 off
- North Dakota · 52 not supporting · 20 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: 91.5% of the inventory reported from Kentucky carries a definitive verdict, 11th 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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky, 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.