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LakeQuality

Cushing Municipal Lake

Payne County, OklahomaView mapDirections

Oklahoma DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Cushing Municipal Lake. Here is what has been measured.

Clarity
0.5 ft
Secchi · sampled 2017
Trend
Declining
2 years of samples
  • Impaired · Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)
  • Limited data

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Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.

Cushing Municipal Lake in Payne County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 0.5 ft visibility.

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Cushing Municipal Lake is a lake in Payne County, Oklahoma. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years.

Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, ODEQ, last sampled 2017-07-05. Grade methodology: LakeQuality methodology.

Swimming conditions

No reading

Limited data

Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Cushing Municipal Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), oxygen depletion (low DO), turbidity. Check local advisories before you swim.

Whether Cushing Municipal 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.

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Water quality measurements for Cushing Municipal Lake

These are the measurements Oklahoma DEQ publishes for Cushing Municipal 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 0.5 ft of visibility. TSI 88.

MetricValueEPA condition class
Water Clarity (Secchi Depth)0.5 ftMeasured, not scored
PhosphorusNo recent samples
Chlorophyll-a (Algae)No recent samples
Trophic State Index (TSI)88Hypereutrophic

Very high nutrients, dense algae, poor clarity

Fishing Cushing Municipal Lake

Based on 2 years of monitoring data (2020-2025).

MetricTrendChange/YearYears
Water Clarity Improving+2.66 m/yr2
Phosphorus Declining+11.48 µg/L/yr2
Chlorophyll-a Declining+3.4 µg/L/yr2

EPA Impairment Status

Cushing Municipal Lake is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2020 EPA reporting cycle.

Causes of impairment

Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)Oxygen depletion (low DO)Turbidity

Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit Big Creek 001 · Official waterbody report · Matched by proximity (1.72 km)

Nearby Lakes in Payne County

Frequently asked questions about Cushing Municipal Lake

Where is Cushing Municipal Lake?

Cushing Municipal Lake is a lake in Payne County, Oklahoma. Its water-quality measurements are published by Oklahoma DEQ and shown on this page as reported.

What is the water quality of Cushing Municipal Lake?

Cushing Municipal Lake in Payne County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 0.5 ft visibility.

Is Cushing Municipal Lake safe to swim in?

Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Cushing Municipal Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), oxygen depletion (low DO), turbidity. Check local advisories before you swim.

Hypereutrophic Lakes in Oklahoma

Where this data comes from

9 measurements from 3 monitoring stations, 2016–2017. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.

Collected and reported by

  • OWRB Lakes MonitoringOKWRB-LAKES_WQX9 samples · 2016–2017

Analytical methods

  • OWRB Lakes Field Data Collection
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

Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database