Great Creek Reservoir
Brunswick County, Virginia238 acresView mapDirections
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Great Creek Reservoir. Here is what has been measured.
- Eutrophic
- 33 ft max depth
- Public access
Great Creek Reservoir in Brunswick County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 3.1 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 15.5 µg/L. Surface area: 238.34 acres.
Great Creek Reservoir is a 238-acre productive, nutrient-rich eutrophic lake in Brunswick County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 33 feet. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years. Limited fish-species data available. Public access is available with 1 public boat landing. Compared to the 2 other monitored lakes in Brunswick County, Great Creek Reservoir ranks #2 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2026-06-30. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Great Creek Reservoir is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Boat launch1 documented ramp
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyAlgae risk
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 Great Creek 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 Great Creek Reservoir
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Great Creek Reservoir, 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 3.1 ft of visibility. Phosphorus 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 15.5 µg/L. TSI 57.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 3.1ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 30µg/L | Fair GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 15.5µg/L | Poor GoodFairPoor |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 57 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Great Creek Reservoir
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~33 ft est.
Surface area
238 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 Great Creek Reservoir.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
41 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
5.3 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
233 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
- Great Creek WatershedPublic
Named access points in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory, within about 3 miles. More lakes with boat ramps
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Great Creek Reservoir
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Great Creek Reservoir in Brunswick County, Virginia — 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. The water-quality readings cover nutrients and algae, not lodging. Cabins and rentals around Great Creek Reservoir are listed below.
Top-rated places to stay near Great Creek Reservoir
Prices for Oct 30–Nov 1, 4 adults. Change dates on the map below.
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Fishing Great Creek Reservoir
Water Quality Trend: Worsening
Based on 6 years of monitoring (2013–2026).
Water clarity
Stable6 years
Phosphorus
Stable-0.21 µg/L/yr5 years
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+0.6 µg/L/yr5 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Great Creek Reservoir is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Great Creek Dam # 6a (completed 1989), built primarily for flood risk reduction on the Great Creek - VAHU6 CM16 Great Creek; earth-type dam, 67 ft tall and 1,530 ft long.
- Surface area
- 238.34 ac
- Normal storage
- 2,318 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 29,632 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 41.23 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- County of Brunswick
All listed purposes: Flood Risk Reduction;Recreation;Water Supply.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA025007 · Operator website
Nearby Lakes in Brunswick County
Frequently asked questions about Great Creek Reservoir
Where is Great Creek Reservoir?
- Great Creek Reservoir is a lake in Brunswick County, Virginia. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Great Creek Reservoir?
- Great Creek Reservoir in Brunswick County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 3.1 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 15.5 µg/L. Surface area: 238.34 acres.
Is Great Creek Reservoir safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Great Creek Reservoir?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Great Creek Reservoir, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 33 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 238.34 acres.
Are there boat ramps on Great Creek Reservoir?
- Great Creek Reservoir has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Named access points include Great Creek Watershed. Public access is listed as yes.
Can I fish at Great Creek Reservoir?
- Great Creek Reservoir 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.
Explore Great Creek Reservoir across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
156 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2013–2026. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB156 samples · 2013–2026
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
- 446.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophylls and Pheopigments in Phytoplankton by Spectrophotometry
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)
Named boat-access points from the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory