Carvins Cove Reservoir
Botetourt County, Virginia569 acresView mapDirections
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Carvins Cove Reservoir. Here is what has been measured.
- Oligotrophic
- 51 ft max depth
Carvins Cove Reservoir in Botetourt County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 11.5 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 10 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 1.2 µg/L. Surface area: 568.8 acres.
Carvins Cove Reservoir is a 569-acre cold, clear oligotrophic lake in Botetourt County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 51 feet. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2024-10-02. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Carvins Cove Reservoir is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water11.5 ft of visibility
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyLow 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 Carvins Cove Reservoir 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 Carvins Cove Reservoir
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Carvins Cove Reservoir, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Good clarity, visible to about 11.5 ft. Phosphorus 10 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 1.2 µg/L. TSI 37.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 11.5ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 10µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 1.2µg/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. | 37 | Oligotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.
Ask about Carvins Cove Reservoir
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~51 ft est.
Surface area
569 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 Carvins Cove Reservoir.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
17 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
8.6 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,161 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 Carvins Cove Reservoir
Water Quality Trend: Improving
Based on 5 years of monitoring (2012–2024).
Water clarity
Stable5 years
Phosphorus
Improving-0.72 µg/L/yr5 years
Chlorophyll-a
Stable0 µg/L/yr5 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Carvins Cove Reservoir is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Carvin Cove Dam, built primarily for water supply on the Carvins Creek; masonry-type dam, 85 ft tall and 315 ft long.
- Surface area
- 568.8 ac
- Normal storage
- 20,500 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 23,000 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 17.67 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- Western Virginia Water Authority
All listed purposes: Water Supply;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA023001 · Operator website · Matched by proximity (0.05 km)
Nearby Lakes in Botetourt County
Frequently asked questions about Carvins Cove Reservoir
Where is Carvins Cove Reservoir?
- Carvins Cove Reservoir is a lake in Botetourt County, Virginia. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Carvins Cove Reservoir?
- Carvins Cove Reservoir in Botetourt County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 11.5 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 10 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 1.2 µg/L. Surface area: 568.8 acres.
Is Carvins Cove Reservoir safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Carvins Cove Reservoir?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Carvins Cove Reservoir, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 51 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 568.8 acres.
Explore Carvins Cove Reservoir across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
230 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2012–2024. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB230 samples · 2012–2024
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
- 2130 B ~ Nephelometric Method
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
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)