Impaired Lakes in Kansas
77 of 195 measured Kansas lakes (39%) are officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the most recent EPA ATTAINS reporting cycle. 62 have an approved TMDL restoration plan.
Top Causes of Impairment in Kansas
Reading the Kansas impairment landscape
Kansas reports 77 impaired lakes — 39% of the state's 195 tracked water bodies. That share is high enough to make impairment a meaningful planning concern: roughly one in four lakes carries at least one §303(d) listing for a pollutant exceeding standards. The list below isn't a niche concern — it's a significant chunk of the state's surface-water inventory.
The leading impairment category in Kansas is Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) — nutrient enrichment, typically from agricultural fertilizer runoff, septic discharge, or stormwater carrying lawn-care residue. Nutrient-impaired lakes can still be safe for contact recreation in many conditions, but they're prone to algal blooms (including potentially toxic cyanobacteria) during warm-water periods. Check the state's beach-monitoring or harmful-algal-bloom dashboard before swimming on nutrient-impaired waters in summer.
Impaired-waters listings come from the state environmental agency's §303(d) submission to EPA, refreshed on a roughly 2-year cycle. A listed lake stays on the list until either a TMDL is established and the cleanup completes, or subsequent monitoring shows the pollutant concentrations no longer exceed water-quality standards. The list below reflects the most recent available Kansas submission to the EPA Assessment, Total Maximum Daily Load Tracking and Implementation System (ATTAINS) dataset.
All 77 EPA-Listed Impaired Lakes in Kansas
| Lake | County | Causes | TMDL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yates Center Reservoir | Woodson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| New Olathe Lake | Johnson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Parsons Lake | Neosho | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Bone Creek Lake | Crawford | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Hillsdale Lake | Miami | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Cedar Bluff Lake | Trego | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Salinity / chlorides | ✓ |
| Kanopolis Lake | Ellsworth | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Salinity / chlorides | ✓ |
| Mission Lake | Brown | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Pesticides, Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| El Dorado Lake | Butler | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Big Hill Lake | Labette | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Pleasanton Reservoir | Linn | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Richmond City Lake | Franklin | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO) | — |
| Potter'S Lake | Douglas | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Mound City Lake | Linn | Noxious aquatic plants, Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO) +1 more | ✓ |
| New Yates Center Lake | Woodson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Banner Creek Lake | Jackson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Lone Star Lake | Douglas | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Council Grove Lake | Morris | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Fall River Lake | Greenwood | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Elk City Lake | Montgomery | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| John Redmond Lake | Coffey | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Waconda Lake | Mitchell | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Salinity / chlorides | ✓ |
| Kirwin Lake | Phillips | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO) | ✓ |
| Strowbridge Reservoir | Osage | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Milford Lake | Clay | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO) | ✓ |
| Perry Lake | Jefferson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Marion Lake | Marion | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Marion Co Lake | Marion | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO) | ✓ |
| Lake Afton | Sedgwick | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Harvey Co West Park Lake | Harvey | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Anthony City Lake | Harper | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO), pH / acidity +1 more | ✓ |
| Webster Lake | Rooks | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Salinity / chlorides, Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Hiawatha City Lake | Brown | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Pesticides | ✓ |
| Augusta City Lake | Butler | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Cedar Lake | Johnson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Ellis City Lake | Ellis | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Lovewell Lake | Jewell | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), pH / acidity | ✓ |
| Augusta Santa Fe Lake | Butler | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Pomona Lake | Osage | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Chanute Santa Fe Lake | Neosho | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO), pH / acidity | ✓ |
| Central Park Lake | Shawnee | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Big Eleven Lake | Wyandotte | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Antioch Park Lake | Johnson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Pesticides | ✓ |
| Lake Shawnee | Shawnee | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Carey Park Lake | Reno | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Harvey Co East Lake | Harvey | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Herington City Park Lake | Dickinson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Mingenback Lake | McPherson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO) | ✓ |
| Centralia Lake | Nemaha | Noxious aquatic plants, Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), pH / acidity | ✓ |
| Newton City Park Lake | Harvey | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Sabetha City Lake | Nemaha | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Olpe City Lake | Lyon | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Eureka Lake | Greenwood | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Fort Scott City Lake | Bourbon | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Sedan City North Lake | Chautauqua | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Miola Lake | Miami | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Antelope Lake | Graham | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Jetmore Lake | Hodgeman | Noxious aquatic plants, Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| La Cygne Lake | Linn | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Gridley City Lake | Coffey | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO) | ✓ |
| Prairie Lake | Jackson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Lake Coldwater | Comanche | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Crystal Lake | Anderson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Herington Reservoir | Dickinson | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Oxygen depletion (low DO), Pesticides +1 more | ✓ |
| Winfield City Lake | Cowley | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Pony Creek Lake | Brown | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Moline Reservoir | Elk | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Ogden City Lake | Riley | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Plainville Township Lake | Rooks | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Stone Lake | Barton | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Carbondale West Lake | Osage | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | — |
| Severy City Lake | Greenwood | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Salinity / chlorides | — |
| Wamego City Lake | Pottawatomie | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Fossil Lake | Russell | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), Sediment / turbidity | ✓ |
| Spring Creek Park Lake | Douglas | Noxious aquatic plants, Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Little Lake | Brown | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
| Colby City Pond | Thomas | Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) | ✓ |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many lakes are impaired in Kansas?
77 of 195 measured Kansas lakes (39%) are listed as impaired in the most recent EPA ATTAINS reporting cycle. Of those, 18 are on the federal Clean Water Act §303(d) list and 62 have an approved Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) restoration plan.
What does Clean Water Act §303(d) mean?
Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act requires every state to identify waters that don't meet water quality standards even after pollution control measures. Each listed water must then have a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) developed — a plan that caps how much of each pollutant can enter the waterbody. The "303(d) list" is the impaired-waters list. The EPA reviews each state's list every two years.
What are the top causes of impairment in Kansas?
The most common causes flagged across Kansas's impaired lakes are: Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen) (77 lakes); Sediment / turbidity (15 lakes); Oxygen depletion (low DO) (12 lakes); Salinity / chlorides (5 lakes); pH / acidity (5 lakes); Pesticides (4 lakes). Mercury is widespread in fish tissue across the upper Midwest from atmospheric deposition. Nutrient impairment (phosphorus, nitrogen) typically reflects agricultural runoff and urban stormwater.
Can I swim in an impaired lake?
It depends on the cause of impairment. A lake impaired for "mercury in fish tissue" is generally safe to swim in — the warning is about long-term consumption of fish. A lake impaired for "pathogens" (E. coli) or "algal growth" may pose a swimming risk and often has a separate beach advisory. Check the cause categories listed for each lake below, and consult your state health department's beach monitoring program for current advisories.
Where does this impairment data come from?
Every impairment record on this page comes from the EPA's ATTAINS (Assessment and TMDL Tracking and Implementation System) public dataset, the federal repository of state-reported water quality assessments. EPA ATTAINS is published as GeoParquet files on the EPA Office of Water S3 bucket and refreshed several times per year. Causes and use-support codes follow EPA's standard taxonomy.
More on impaired waters
What it means when a lake is listed as impaired, why mercury is the most common reason, and why a listed lake can still be clear water with favourable readings.
Why states issue fish-consumption advisories, which contaminants — mercury, PCBs, PFAS — drive them, and how to eat the fish you catch more safely.
How phosphorus and nutrient runoff drive algae growth and turn lakes green, where the nutrients come from, and what it means for a lake’s readings.
Which lakes are actually improving: multi-year EPA monitoring trends, the named recoveries still in progress, and what it takes to move the readings.
Data source
Impairment data from the EPA ATTAINS (Assessment and TMDL Tracking and Implementation System) public dataset. Assessment unit IDs are matched to LakeQuality lakes by name and proximity; some lakes may not appear here if their ATTAINS name doesn't match our naming convention. For an official query, consult .