Canandaigua Lake
Ontario County, New YorkView mapDirections
NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Canandaigua Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- 64 ft max depth
- Public access
- Limited data
Canandaigua Lake in Ontario County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 17.6 ft visibility.
Canandaigua Lake is a lake in Ontario County, New York with an estimated average depth of about 64 feet. Limited fish-species data available. Public access is available with 1 public boat landing.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2020-09-20. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Canandaigua Lake has one public boat landing. Vrbo is where to look for cabins and lake homes around Canandaigua Lake, and Booking.com and Expedia search hotels near the lake for your dates.
What Canandaigua Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water17.6 ft of visibility
- Boat launch1 documented ramp
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Canandaigua Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Canandaigua Lake
These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Canandaigua Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Crystal clear, you can see 17.6 ft down. TSI 36.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 17.6ft | 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. | 36 | Oligotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.
Ask about Canandaigua Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~64 ft est.
Public access
Yes
Listed by NY DEC
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. New York has not published bathymetry for Canandaigua Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
169 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Surface area
10,373 acres
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
34.2 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
686 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.
Recreation & Access
- Canandaigua Lake (North)Public
Named access points in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory, within about 3 miles. More lakes with boat ramps
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Canandaigua Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Canandaigua Lake in Ontario County, New York — 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 Canandaigua Lake
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Fishing Canandaigua Lake
Regulated Pollution Sources Nearby
4 EPA-permitted facilities operate within about 5 miles of Canandaigua Lake under Clean Water Act (NPDES) discharge permits. 2 facilities have a reported Clean Water Act violation in the past three years.
- Bristol Sewerage Disposal CorpCanandaigua · 2.9 mi away · NPDES NY0063584Recent violation
- Rushville (V) StpGorham · 4 mi away · NPDES NY0161071Recent violation
- Williams PropertySouth Bristol · 3.4 mi away · NPDES NY0162809
- Dollinger PropertyMiddlesex · 4.7 mi away · NPDES NY0161128
Facilities permitted to discharge under the Clean Water Act within ~5 miles; proximity does not by itself mean a facility affects this lake. Source: EPA ECHO (ICIS-NPDES), as of 2026-07.
Nearby Lakes in Ontario County
Frequently asked questions about Canandaigua Lake
Where is Canandaigua Lake?
- Canandaigua Lake is a lake in Ontario County, New York. Its water-quality measurements are published by NY DEC and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Canandaigua Lake?
- Canandaigua Lake in Ontario County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 17.6 ft visibility.
Is Canandaigua Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Canandaigua Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Canandaigua Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 64 feet, but that is a modelled estimate derived from surrounding terrain rather than a measurement on the water, so treat it as approximate.
Are there boat ramps on Canandaigua Lake?
- Canandaigua Lake has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Named access points include Canandaigua Lake (North). Public access is listed as yes.
Can I fish at Canandaigua Lake?
- Canandaigua Lake has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Seasons, size and bag limits, and whether you need a license are set by New York's fish and wildlife agency, so check its current regulations before you go.
Explore Canandaigua Lake across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
16 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2020. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- North American Lake Management Society
NALMS16 samples · 2020
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
Regulated discharger data from EPA ECHO (ICIS-NPDES)
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)
Named boat-access points from the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory