Bone Creek Lake
Crawford County, Kansas523 acresView mapDirections
KDHE publishes the water-quality measurements for Bone Creek Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Eutrophic
- Impaired · Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)
- 40 ft max depth
- Limited data
Bone Creek Lake in Crawford County, Kansas has water-quality measurements published by KDHE, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.8 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 13 µg/L. Surface area: 523 acres.
Bone Creek Lake is a 523-acre productive, nutrient-rich eutrophic lake in Crawford County, Kansas with an estimated average depth of about 40 feet. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years. Compared to the 1 other monitored lakes in Crawford County, Bone Creek Lake ranks #2 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, KDHE, last sampled 2018-06-25. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Bone Creek Lake covers about 520 acres in Crawford County. If you are planning to stay, you can search lake houses and cabins around Bone Creek Lake on Vrbo, or look for a hotel room near the lake on Booking.com or Expedia.
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyRecreation use not supported
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. Bone Creek Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Bone Creek Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Bone Creek Lake
These are the measurements KDHE publishes for Bone Creek 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 5.8 ft. Phosphorus 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 13 µg/L. TSI 52.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 5.8ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 20µg/L | Measured, not scored The nutrient that most limits algae growth in freshwater. More phosphorus, more algae potential. |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 13µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 52 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Bone Creek Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~40 ft est.
Surface area
523 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Kansas has not published bathymetry for Bone Creek Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
13 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2.6 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
896 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.
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Bone Creek Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Bone Creek Lake in Crawford County, Kansas — live availability and prices for your trip. Switch the map to Satellite to see the lake and how close each stay is to the water.
Top-rated places to stay near Bone Creek Lake
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Fishing Bone Creek Lake
Water quality readings over time
3 seasons of samples on record (2015–2018). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Worsening2 years
Phosphorus
Worsening+2.67 µg/L/yr2 years
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+2.22 µg/L/yr3 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Bone Creek Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Bone Creek Reservoir (completed 1997), built primarily for water supply on the Bone Creek; earth-type dam, 52 ft tall and 3,150 ft long.
- Surface area
- 523 ac
- Normal storage
- 8,922 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 16,828 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 12.5 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- PUBLIC WHOLESALE WATER SUPPLY DIST NO 11
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID KS07835 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Bone Creek Lake is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2024 EPA reporting cycle (IR category 5).
Causes of impairment
Designated uses not supporting: Drinking water, Aquatic life, Recreation.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit KS-LM043901 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Crawford County
Frequently asked questions about Bone Creek Lake
Where is Bone Creek Lake?
- Bone Creek Lake is a lake in Crawford County, Kansas. Its water-quality measurements are published by KDHE and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Bone Creek Lake?
- Bone Creek Lake in Crawford County, Kansas has water-quality measurements published by KDHE, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.8 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 20 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 13 µg/L. Surface area: 523 acres.
Is Bone Creek Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Bone Creek Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Bone Creek Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Bone Creek Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 40 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 523 acres.
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Where this data comes from
10 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2015–2018. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- Kansas Department Of Health And Environment
21KAN001_WQX10 samples · 2015–2018
Analytical methods
- Depth, Secchi disk depth
- Phosphorus by Colorimetry
- 10200 H ~ Chlorophyll a-b-c Determination
Monitoring station identifiers (1)
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
Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)