Lookup tools · assessment records by name

Can you eat the fish from that lake?

Type a lake or reservoir name to pull its reported assessment record: the fish-consumption use verdict, whether mercury or PCBs are listed, and, where the waterbody carries one, its daily USGS water-level record. Verdicts are assessment decisions; your state fish-advisory program issues the binding species-level meal advice.

Compiled by PlainLakes

15,611
Searchable records: 8,153
With a fish-use verdict: 6,355
Fish use not supporting

What this lookup answers

Search 15,611 populated lake records from EPA ATTAINS by name: 8,153 carry a fish-consumption or related fishery use verdict, and 6,355 are assessed Not Supporting, with USGS daily level where the waterbody carries a gauge.

15,611
searchable records: 8,153
with a fish-use verdict: 6,355
fish use not supporting: 106
with a USGS gauge

Assessment verdicts are cycle-based and lake-wide; your state's fish-advisory program issues binding species-level meal advice.

Lookup

Fish-consumption status lookup

Search by name; results link to the full record. Two-character minimum.

Try:

Superior (MN)

Great Lakes Open Water · 2 listed causes

Fish use: Not Supporting Mercury or PCBs listed

Lake Winnebago (WI)

Lake, Freshwater · 2 listed causes

Fish use: Fully Supporting

Lake of the Woods (MN)

Lake · 1 listed cause

Fish use: not reported

Three real records, one per verdict, shown until you search. A lake with no reported fish-consumption verdict is the most common outcome in this data, not an unusual one.

Before you eat what you catch: assessment verdicts are cycle-based and lake-wide. Species, fish size, and who is eating (children, pregnant or nursing women) change the safe meal frequency. Your state's fish-consumption advisory program is the binding source; see the consumption status guide for how to find it.

What a lookup can verify

Every lake has a record, not every record runs deep

All 15,611 searchable waterbodies carry a base register record. The deeper verification layers below, a fish-consumption assessment, a not-supporting verdict, a linked USGS gauge, exist for a smaller share, so a lookup returns more for some lakes than others.

Base waterbody record 100% 15,611

Every searchable record: name, state, and water type.
Fish-consumption assessment 52% 8,153

A state has assessed whether it is safe to eat fish from this waterbody.
Not-supporting fish-use verdict 41% 6,355

The assessment found the fish-consumption use is not supported, the register's highest-signal layer.
USGS water-level gauge 1% 106

A linked USGS gauge reports a daily water-level series for this waterbody.

Share of the 15,611 searchable waterbodies carrying each layer. Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment records and USGS National Water Information System gauge network, current release.

Return visits

Lake watchlist

Save waterbodies you re-check when assessment cycles or gauge readings update. Browser-only, no account.

Open watchlist Re-check after EPA or USGS extract updates, typically every 6–12 months.

AK ME

VT NH

WA ID MT ND MN IL WI MI NY MA

OR UT WY SD IA IN OH PA NJ CT RI

CA NV CO NE MO KY WV VA MD DE

AZ NM KS AR TN NC SC

OK LA MS AL GA

HI TX FL

Scale: 0–11 11–28 28–69 69–147 147–2K

View all 36 states as a list

What this shows New Hampshire lists the most searchable lake records with a not-supporting fish-consumption or related fishery use (2,233), 100% of the 2,233 it assessed for that use. That is the ordinary shape of this dataset rather than an outlier: 19 of the 36 states reporting this use listed at least 80% of what they assessed, and 9 listed all of it. Counts track how much a state assessed and how it writes its listings, so a low count can mean fewer rulings rather than cleaner water.

Searchable set · two rankings

New Hampshire ranks #1 of 36 by fish-use Not Supporting listings (2,233 searchable records, 0 with a gauge in this set). Oregon ranks #1 of 26 by lakes carrying a linked USGS gauge (16 records, 90 fish listings, fish rank #14 of 36). The state with the most fish-use listings is not the state with the most gauge-linked lakes.

New Hampshire
2,233 fish listings: Oregon
16 gauged lakes

Counts are searchable tier-1 records only, the same population the lookup above can return.

Gauge network · trailing 365 days

The water year, lake by lake

One panel per gauged lake. Each trace is drawn against that lake's own low and high for the year, so the panels compare the shape of a year and the size of a swing, never one lake's level against another's.

Green Peter Lake (OR) moved the most: 213 ft between its lowest and highest reading of the year, against 7.8 ft at Eagle Nest Lake (NM).

The deep, regular V-shapes belong to reservoirs drawn down and refilled on a schedule; the near-flat panels are lakes whose surface barely moves. A big swing is an operating pattern, not a verdict on the lake. Levels come from USGS parameters that all report feet of water: lake or reservoir surface elevation (00062, 62614, 62615, 72264) and gage height (00065), measured from the gauge’s own zero. Each row names its measure. The elevations here are quoted against 2 different vertical datums (NGVD 29, NAVD 88), which do not share a zero, and 2 rows report a stage measured from a local project datum rather than from sea level, marked “local datum”. Absolute elevations are therefore not comparable between lakes. Change is measured within a single gauge, against its own baseline, so it compares a lake to itself and never one lake’s level to another’s. USGS does not file one daily statistic for every gauge: 17 of these 40 rows are a daily mean and the rest are a daily maximum or a reading at 08:00 or a reading at 24:00. A row's change, range and latest value are all that statistic's. 39 of the 40 level records ranked here are provisional and subject to revision by USGS.

Showing 40 of the 110 assessed lakes carrying a USGS water-level series, widest swing first; the rest reported too few weeks this year to draw a full trace. Storage-only reservoir gauges measure volume in acre-feet, not level, and are not on this wall.

Gauge network

Check a lake's level

Every gauged lake's record page charts its 365-day level trace. 123 gauged lakes currently have a computable level change, 85 of them falling on a waterbody with a full assessment record. The 5 steepest are listed here: Every reading ranked here is provisional and subject to revision by USGS, which has not yet completed quality review on it. USGS does not file one daily statistic for every gauge: 2 of these 5 rows are a daily mean and the rest are a reading at 08:00 or a reading at 24:00. A row's change, range and latest value are all that statistic's. The elevations here are quoted against 2 different vertical datums (NGVD 29, NAVD 88), which do not share a zero. Absolute elevations are therefore not comparable between lakes.

All level movers

Lookup results are rendered from state assessment decisions in EPA's ATTAINS system; water levels are USGS National Water Information System daily values, no number is typed in by an editor. The search covers named waterbodies with a populated record (assessment verdicts, listed causes, or a linked gauge). Mercury/PCB flags reflect the state's listed causes, not new testing. 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.