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LakeQuality

Friends Lake

Warren County, New York450 acresView mapDirections

NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Friends Lake. Here is what has been measured.

Clarity
13.8 ft
Typical for New York
Secchi · sampled 2021
Area
450 acres
Surface area
  • Limited data

Friends Lake in Warren County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 13.8 ft visibility. Surface area: 450 acres.

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Friends Lake is a 450-acre lake in Warren County, New York. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years.

Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2021-10-05. Methodology: how these readings are compared.

Friends Lake covers about 450 acres in Warren County. For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Friends Lake on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.

What Friends Lake is good for

From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.

  • Clear water13.8 ft of visibility

Swimming conditions

No reading

Limited data

Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.

Whether Friends 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.

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Water quality measurements for Friends Lake

These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Friends 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 13.8 ft. TSI 39.

Water quality readings
MeasureReadingWhere it sits
Water clarity (Secchi depth)13.8ftMeasured, not scored

How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer.

Total phosphorusNo 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.39Oligotrophic
OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic

Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.

Ask about Friends Lake

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

Lake Details

Surface area

450 acres

No bathymetric survey has been published for Friends Lake, so its depth is not documented here.

Stays via Stay22

Stays near Friends Lake

Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Friends Lake in Warren 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 Friends Lake

Prices for Oct 23–25, 4 adults. Change dates on the map below.

Availability and prices from Stay22 partners (Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia). We may earn a commission from bookings, at no extra cost to you.

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Fishing Friends Lake

2 seasons of samples on record (2020–2021). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.

  • Water clarity

    Improving

    2 years

Reservoir Info (USACE NID)

Friends Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Friends Lake Dam (completed 1954), built primarily for recreation on the TR-CHESTER CREEK; earth-type dam, 7 ft tall and 300 ft long.

Surface area
450 ac
Normal storage
6,300 ac-ft
Max storage
6,300 ac-ft
Drainage area
5.56 sq mi
Hazard class
Low
Owner
FRIENDS LAKE PROPERTY ASSOCIATION

Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NY01514 · Operator website

Nearby Lakes in Warren County

Frequently asked questions about Friends Lake

Where is Friends Lake?

Friends Lake is a lake in Warren 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 Friends Lake?

Friends Lake in Warren County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 13.8 ft visibility. Surface area: 450 acres.

Measurements on this page ↑

Is Friends Lake safe to swim in?

Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.

Swimming on this page ↑

Oligotrophic Lakes in New York

Where this data comes from

6 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2021. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.

Collected and reported by

  • USGS New York Water Science CenterUSGS-NY6 samples · 2021
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.