Abel Lake
Stafford County, Virginia185 acresView mapDirections
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Abel Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Eutrophic
- 30 ft max depth
Abel Lake in Stafford County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.2 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 7.4 µg/L. Surface area: 185 acres.
Abel Lake is a 185-acre productive, nutrient-rich eutrophic lake in Stafford County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 30 feet. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years. Compared to the 4 other monitored lakes in Stafford County, Abel Lake ranks #5 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2024-10-24. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyModerate algae
Based on clarity and algae readings from past sampling — there is no live water temperature and a current cyanobacteria reading for this lake. Check your state or county health department before you swim.
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Abel Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Abel Lake
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Abel Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Murky, only visible to about 5.2 ft. Phosphorus 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 7.4 µg/L. TSI 50.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 5.2ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 20µg/L | Fair GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 7.4µg/L | Fair GoodFairPoor |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 50 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Abel Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~30 ft est.
Surface area
185 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Virginia has not published bathymetry for Abel Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
30 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2.9 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
164 ft
Size, shoreline, and watershed area from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS). Mean depth here is modelled, not surveyed — HydroLAKES v1.0 estimates lake depth from surrounding terrain rather than from soundings. Treat it as an approximation, and prefer a state bathymetric survey where one exists.
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Fishing Abel Lake
Water Quality Trend: Improving
Based on 4 years of monitoring (2016–2024).
Water clarity
Improving4 years
Phosphorus
Improving-1 µg/L/yr4 years
Chlorophyll-a
Improving-0.65 µg/L/yr4 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Abel Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Potomac Creek Dam #1, built primarily for flood risk reduction on the Potomac Creek; earth-type dam, 94 ft tall and 935 ft long.
- Surface area
- 185 ac
- Normal storage
- 4,000 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 11,400 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 30.5 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- Stafford Co. Board of Supervisors
All listed purposes: Flood Risk Reduction;Water Supply.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA179002 · Operator website
Nearby Lakes in Stafford County
Frequently asked questions about Abel Lake
Where is Abel Lake?
- Abel Lake is a lake in Stafford County, Virginia. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Abel Lake?
- Abel Lake in Stafford County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.2 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 7.4 µg/L. Surface area: 185 acres.
Is Abel Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Abel Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Abel Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 30 feet, but that is a modelled estimate derived from surrounding terrain rather than a measurement on the water, so treat it as approximate. The lake covers 185 acres.
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Where this data comes from
210 measurements from 2 monitoring stations, 2016–2024. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB210 samples · 2016–2024
Analytical methods
- Tyler, John. 1968. The secchi disk, Limnology and Oceanograpy, 13(1):1-6.
- Total Phosphorus After Block Digestion
- 445.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophyll and Pheophytin in Algae by Fluorescence
Monitoring station identifiers (2)
EPA condition classes from the National Lakes Assessment (EPA 841-R-24-006, Table 6-3), applied by ecoregion. See where the data comes from and data sources.
Other records on this page
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)