State water-quality picture · #34 by reported lake-type waterbodies
New Mexico lakes and reservoirs
Every figure on this page is computed from the assessment decisions New Mexico and the Pueblo of San Ildefonso reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b) (reporting cycles 1998–2026), plus daily water-level observations from the U.S. Geological Survey.
- 176
- Reported waterbodies
- 46
- Not supporting a use
- Not reported
- Fish use assessments
- 6
- Gauged lakes
New Mexico in one line
176 lake-type waterbodies in New Mexico are reported to EPA ATTAINS across reporting cycles 1998–2026: 46 assessed as not supporting at least one designated use, 28 fully supporting, and 102 without a definitive overall verdict. The most-listed impairment cause is Nutrients, on 25 waterbodies.
- 176
- reported waterbodies
- 46
- not supporting a use
- 28
- fully supporting
- 62%
- of definitive verdicts impaired
An unassessed waterbody is neither confirmed clean nor confirmed impaired; states assess on multi-year cycles.
New Mexico's smaller reported lake-type inventory
At 176 units, New Mexico 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, New Mexico and the Pueblo of San Ildefonso reported 176 lake-type waterbodies in New Mexico in the August 2026 extract. See our methodology for filer attribution and multi-year reporting cycles.
Overall-status split on New Mexico's compact register
Every reported lake-type unit in this smaller New Mexico filing set falls into exactly one overall-status bucket. The bar partitions 176 units; cause and gauge panels below stay separate.
Most-listed impairment causes in New Mexico
Waterbodies carrying each listed cause, most first
- Nutrients
Nutrients
25 waterbodies
- Mercury - Fish Consumption Advisory
Mercury - Fish Consumption Advisory
22 waterbodies
- Temperature
Temperature
10 waterbodies
- pH 7
pH
7 waterbodies
- PCBs - Fish Consumption Advisory 6
PCBs - Fish Consumption Advisory
6 waterbodies
What this shows Nutrients is the most-listed impairment cause in New Mexico, on 25 of the lake-type waterbodies reported there.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
New Mexico: 62% of ruled verdicts are not-supporting, against a national share of 53%, 1.2× the national rate.
Reporting practice
Where New Mexico stands on definitive-verdict coverage
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.
New Mexico holds the 34th-largest reported lake-type inventory in the country, 176 assessment units, carrying a definitive verdict on 42% of it. The counts above describe the 74 units carrying a verdict, not all 176 reported. New Mexico has also retired 25 lake-type assessment units, superseded filings that are kept on the site but not counted here.
The states reporting at the nearest rates are Oklahoma (42.8%) and Idaho (37.6%).
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.
Not every unit counted here was assessed by New Mexico. 3 of them were filed by a sovereign tribal nation reporting directly to EPA under Clean Water Act section 518, which lets a tribe set and apply its own water quality standards in the same manner as a state: Pueblo of San Ildefonso (3). Those decisions are theirs, not New Mexico's.
New Mexico against every comparable state
Share of reported lake-type waterbodies carrying a definitive verdict
42% 38th of 47 higher than 9 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 New Mexico
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 | Navajo Reservoir Not Supporting | 12,680 |
| 2 | Elephant Butte Reservoir Not Supporting | 10,909 |
| 3 | South Lordsburg Playa Not Assessed | 7,412 |
| 4 | Ute Reservoir Not Supporting | 5,988 |
| 5 | Heron Reservoir Not Supporting | 4,497 |
| 6 | Laguna del Pero Fully Supporting | 4,477 |
| 7 | Caballo Reservoir Not Supporting | 4,441 |
| 8 | Conchas Reservoir Not Supporting | 3,411 |
| 9 | Lake Lucero (North) Not Assessed | 3,326 |
| 10 | Abiquiu Reservoir Not Supporting | 3,258 |
| 11 | El Vado Reservoir Fully Supporting | 3,108 |
| 12 | North Lordsburg Playa Not Assessed | 3,016 |
By cause count
Most-listed waterbodies in New Mexico
Waterbodies carrying the most listed impairment causes among the lake-type units reported by New Mexico and by the Pueblo of San Ildefonso.
| # | Waterbody | Listed causes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abiquiu Reservoir Not Supporting | 3 |
| 1 | Bear Canyon Reservoir Not Supporting | 3 |
| 1 | Heron Reservoir Not Supporting | 3 |
| 1 | Lake Roberts Not Supporting | 3 |
| 1 | Santa Cruz Lake Not Supporting | 3 |
| 1 | Snow Lake Not Supporting | 3 |
| 1 | Storrie Lake Not Supporting | 3 |
| 8 | Bill Evans Lake Not Supporting | 2 |
| 8 | Bluewater Lake Not Supporting | 2 |
| 8 | Brantley Reservoir Not Supporting | 2 |
Every row in this table ties with at least one other on the ranked value: 7 at 3 (rank 1), 3 at 2 (rank 8). 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 New Mexico
Lakes with a linked USGS gauge and a daily water-level record. Readings are daily-batch snapshots, not real-time.
- Ute Reservoir Not Supporting USGS gauge 07226800 Level record →
- Eagle Nest Lake Not Supporting USGS gauge 07205500 Level record →
- Bluewater Lake Not Supporting USGS gauge 08341400 Level record →
- Lake Maloya Not Supporting USGS gauge 07199450 Level record →
- McClure Reservoir Not Assessed USGS gauge 08315500 Level record →
- Nichols Reservoir Not Assessed USGS gauge 08316500 Level record →
States with similar inventory scale or impairment load
Two EPA ATTAINS peer sets outside New Mexico. 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 (176 here).
- Connecticut · 182 units · 6 off
- South Dakota · 195 units · 19 off
- Arkansas · 144 units · 32 off
- Utah · 143 units · 33 off
Comparable not-supporting counts
Nearest states by units assessed not supporting a use (46 here). Inventory peers above are omitted.
- Georgia · 47 not supporting · 1 off
- West Virginia · 44 not supporting · 2 off
- Idaho · 51 not supporting · 5 off
- North Dakota · 52 not supporting · 6 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: 42% of the inventory reported from New Mexico carries a definitive verdict, 38th 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 New Mexico 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 New Mexico and the Pueblo of San Ildefonso 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 New Mexico and by the Pueblo of San Ildefonso, 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.