Brown Lake
Pittsburg County, Oklahoma548 acresView mapDirections
Oklahoma DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Brown Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- 37 ft max depth
- Limited data
Brown Lake in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1.1 ft visibility. Surface area: 548 acres.
Brown Lake is a 548-acre lake in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma with an estimated average depth of about 37 feet. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, ODEQ, last sampled 2021-08-11. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Brown Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Brown Lake
These are the measurements Oklahoma DEQ publishes for Brown Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Very murky, less than 1.1 ft of visibility. TSI 75.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 1.1ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | No reading The nutrient that most limits algae growth in freshwater. More phosphorus, more algae potential. | |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | No reading The green pigment in algae — a direct measure of how much algae is in the water. | |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 75 | Hypereutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Very high nutrients, dense algae, poor clarity
Ask about Brown Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~37 ft est.
Surface area
548 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Oklahoma has not published bathymetry for Brown Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
15 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
6.1 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
728 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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Stays near Brown Lake
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Fishing Brown Lake
Water quality readings over time
3 seasons of samples on record (2016–2021). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Improving3 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Brown Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Brown Lake (completed 1943), built primarily for water supply on the Bull Creek; earth-type dam, 41 ft tall and 1,565 ft long.
- Surface area
- 548 ac
- Normal storage
- 4,525 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 10,620 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 17 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- Mcalester Aap
All listed purposes: Water Supply;Fish and Wildlife Pond;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID OK20511 · Operator website
Nearby Lakes in Pittsburg County
Frequently asked questions about Brown Lake
Where is Brown Lake?
- Brown Lake is a lake in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. Its water-quality measurements are published by Oklahoma DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Brown Lake?
- Brown Lake in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1.1 ft visibility. Surface area: 548 acres.
Is Brown Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Brown Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Brown Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 37 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 548 acres.
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Where this data comes from
23 measurements from 3 monitoring stations, 2016–2021. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- OWRB Lakes Monitoring
OKWRB-LAKES_WQX23 samples · 2016–2021
Analytical methods
- OWRB Lakes Field Data Collection
- Determination of Turbidity
Monitoring station identifiers (3)
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)