Cuba Lake
Allegany County, New York465 acresView mapDirections
NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Cuba Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)
- 52 ft max depth
- Limited data
Cuba Lake in Allegany County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 14.6 ft visibility. Surface area: 465 acres.
Cuba Lake is a 465-acre lake in Allegany County, New York with an estimated average depth of about 52 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2020-09-15. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Cuba Lake covers about 470 acres in Allegany County. For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Cuba Lake on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.
What Cuba Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water14.6 ft of visibility
Swimming conditions
No readingRecreation use not supported
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Cuba Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Cuba 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 Cuba Lake
These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Cuba Lake, 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 14.6 ft. TSI 38.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 14.6ft | 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. | 38 | Oligotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.
Ask about Cuba Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~52 ft est.
Surface area
465 acres
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 Cuba Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
25 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
5.8 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,539 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 Cuba Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Cuba Lake in Allegany 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 Cuba Lake
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Fishing Cuba Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Cuba Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Cuba Lake Dam (completed 1872), built primarily for recreation on the OIL CREEK; earth-type dam, 55 ft tall and 1,750 ft long.
- Surface area
- 465 ac
- Normal storage
- 8,215 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 16,498 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 25.3 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- CUBA LAKE DISTRICT;New York State Office of General Services
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NY00455 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Cuba Lake is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2022 EPA reporting cycle (IR category 5).
Causes of impairment
Designated uses not supporting: Aquatic life, Recreation.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit NY0201-0016 · Official waterbody report
Regulated Pollution Sources Nearby
4 EPA-permitted facilities operate within about 5 miles of Cuba Lake under Clean Water Act (NPDES) discharge permits. 2 facilities have a reported Clean Water Act violation in the past three years.
- Cuba (V) WwtfCuba · 2.2 mi away · NPDES NY0023515Recent violation
- Great Lakes Cheese Cuba PlantCuba · 3.6 mi away · NPDES NY0003646Recent violation
- Deming Electoplating Corp.Cuba · 2.1 mi away · NPDES NYP080560
- Acme Electric Corp, EngineeredUnknown · 2.2 mi away · NPDES NYP080020
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 Allegany County
Frequently asked questions about Cuba Lake
Where is Cuba Lake?
- Cuba Lake is a lake in Allegany 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 Cuba Lake?
- Cuba Lake in Allegany County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 14.6 ft visibility. Surface area: 465 acres.
Is Cuba Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Cuba Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Cuba Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Cuba Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 52 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 465 acres.
Explore Cuba Lake across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
7 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
NALMS7 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
Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database
Regulated discharger data from EPA ECHO (ICIS-NPDES)
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)