State water-quality picture · #20 by reported lake-type waterbodies
Texas lakes and reservoirs
Every figure on this page is computed from the assessment decisions Texas reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b) (reporting cycles 2012–2024), plus daily water-level observations from the U.S. Geological Survey.
- 489
- Reported waterbodies
- 125
- Not supporting a use
- 59
- Fish use not supporting
- 0
- Gauged lakes
Texas in one line
489 lake-type waterbodies in Texas are reported to EPA ATTAINS across reporting cycles 2012–2024: 125 assessed as not supporting at least one designated use, 331 fully supporting, and 33 without a definitive overall verdict. The most-listed impairment cause is Algae, on 49 waterbodies.
- 489
- reported waterbodies
- 125
- not supporting a use
- 331
- fully supporting
- 29%
- of definitive verdicts impaired
An unassessed waterbody is neither confirmed clean nor confirmed impaired; states assess on multi-year cycles. 23 of those 331 fully supporting verdicts (7%) rest on designated uses this site does not report (irrigation, navigation and industrial water supply), with Texas 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.
Texas's mid-size register with a lighter not-supporting share
Texas sits in the middle third by inventory size (489 units) and in the lowest third for ruled not-supporting share (29%).
Data updated 2026-08-17
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ATTAINS program, Texas reported 489 lake-type waterbodies in Texas in the August 2026 extract. See our methodology for filer attribution and multi-year reporting cycles.
Overall-status mix on Texas's mid-size inventory
Every reported lake-type unit in Texas 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 Texas
Waterbodies carrying each listed cause, most first
- Algae
Algae
49 waterbodies
- Mercury - Fish Consumption Advisory
Mercury - Fish Consumption Advisory
40 waterbodies
- Dioxin - Fish Consumption Advisory
Dioxin - Fish Consumption Advisory
29 waterbodies
- pH, High
pH, High
20 waterbodies
- PCBs - Fish Consumption Advisory 19
PCBs - Fish Consumption Advisory
19 waterbodies
What this shows Algae is the most-listed impairment cause in Texas, on 49 of the lake-type waterbodies reported there.
Computed share from EPA ATTAINS filed records, not an official EPA rating or safety grade.
Texas: 29% of ruled verdicts are not-supporting, against a national share of 53%, 1.8× below the national rate.
Reporting practice
Texas'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.
Texas holds the 20th-largest reported lake-type inventory in the country, 489 assessment units, carrying a definitive verdict on 88.5% of it. The counts above describe the 433 units carrying a verdict, not all 489 reported.
The states reporting at the nearest rates are South Carolina (88.4%) and Maine (89.4%).
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.
Texas against every comparable state
Share of reported lake-type waterbodies carrying a definitive verdict
88.5% 14th of 47 higher than 33 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 Texas
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 Texoma Fully Supporting | 49,400 |
| 2 | Toledo Bend Reservoir Not Supporting | 41,046 |
| 3 | International Falcon Reservoir Fully Supporting | 36,817 |
| 4 | Sam Rayburn Reservoir Not Supporting | 28,238 |
| 5 | International Amistad Reservoir Fully Supporting | 21,328 |
| 6 | Lake Livingston Not Supporting | 18,238 |
| 7 | Caddo Lake Not Assessed | 16,750 |
| 8 | Wright Patman Lake Fully Supporting | 15,691 |
| 9 | O. H. Ivie Reservoir Fully Supporting | 12,350 |
| 10 | Richland-Chambers Reservoir Fully Supporting | 12,175 |
| 11 | Lake Ray Hubbard Fully Supporting | 10,885 |
| 12 | Lake Meredith Not Supporting | 10,495 |
By cause count
Most-listed waterbodies in Texas
Waterbodies carrying the most listed impairment causes among the lake-type units reported by Texas.
| # | Waterbody | Listed causes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | E. V. Spence Reservoir Not Supporting | 4 |
| 1 | Sam Rayburn Reservoir Not Supporting | 4 |
| 3 | B. A. Steinhagen Lake Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Echo Lake Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Ellison Creek Reservoir Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Lake Como Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Lake Meredith Not Supporting | 3 |
| 3 | Lake Sweetwater Not Supporting | 3 |
| 9 | Caddo Lake Not Supporting | 2 |
| 9 | Choke Canyon Reservoir Not Supporting | 2 |
Every row in this table ties with at least one other on the ranked value: 2 at 4 (rank 1), 6 at 3 (rank 3), 2 at 2 (rank 9). 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.
States near Texas's lighter not-supporting load
Two EPA ATTAINS peer sets outside Texas. The reporting-practice chart above stays on definitive-verdict share; these neighborhoods highlight register-size and not-supporting peers while Texas's ruled impairment share sits in the lowest third.
Similar reported inventory
Nearest states by lake-type units on the register (489 here).
- Pennsylvania · 516 units · 27 off
- Oklahoma · 456 units · 33 off
- West Virginia · 434 units · 55 off
- Nebraska · 554 units · 65 off
Comparable not-supporting counts
Nearest states by units assessed not supporting a use (125 here). Inventory peers above are omitted.
- Rhode Island · 119 not supporting · 6 off
- Iowa · 137 not supporting · 12 off
- Alabama · 143 not supporting · 18 off
- Indiana · 145 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: 88.5% of the inventory reported from Texas carries a definitive verdict, 14th 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 Texas 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 Texas 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 Texas, 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.