Emporia Lake
Emporia city County, Virginia510 acresView mapDirections
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Emporia Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Mercury
- 19 ft max depth
- Public access
- Limited data
Emporia Lake in Emporia city County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 60 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 18 µg/L. Surface area: 510 acres.
Emporia Lake is a 510-acre lake in Emporia city County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 19 feet. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years. Limited fish-species data available. Public access is available with 1 public boat landing.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2014-10-29. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Emporia Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Boat launch1 documented ramp
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Emporia Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Emporia Lake 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 Emporia Lake
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Emporia 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 ft of visibility. Phosphorus 60 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 18 µg/L. TSI 66.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 1ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 60µg/L | Measured, not scored The nutrient that most limits algae growth in freshwater. More phosphorus, more algae potential. |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 18µg/L | Measured, not scored 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. | 66 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Emporia Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~19 ft est.
Surface area
510 acres
Public access
Yes
Listed by Virginia DEQ
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Virginia has not published bathymetry for Emporia Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
744 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2.1 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
135 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
- EmporiaPublic
Named access points in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory, within about 3 miles. More lakes with boat ramps
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Fishing Emporia Lake
Water quality readings over time
2 seasons of samples on record (2013–2014). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Improving2 years
Phosphorus
Improving-10 µg/L/yr2 years
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+5.6 µg/L/yr2 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Emporia Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Emporia (completed 1908), built primarily for hydroelectric on the Meherrin; gravity-type dam, 43 ft tall and 680 ft long.
- Surface area
- 510 ac
- Normal storage
- 3,800 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 3,800 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 747 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- Emporia, City of
All listed purposes: Hydroelectric;Fish and Wildlife Pond;Water Supply.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA081001 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Emporia 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: Fish consumption.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit VAP-K08L_MHN02C98 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Emporia city County
Frequently asked questions about Emporia Lake
Where is Emporia Lake?
- Emporia Lake is a lake in Emporia city County, Virginia. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Emporia Lake?
- Emporia Lake in Emporia city County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 60 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 18 µg/L. Surface area: 510 acres.
Is Emporia Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Emporia Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Emporia Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Emporia Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 19 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 510 acres.
Are there boat ramps on Emporia Lake?
- Emporia Lake has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Named access points include Emporia. Public access is listed as yes.
Can I fish at Emporia Lake?
- Emporia 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 Virginia's fish and wildlife agency, so check its current regulations before you go.
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Where this data comes from
56 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2013–2014. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB56 samples · 2013–2014
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
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
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)
Named boat-access points from the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory