Guilford Lake
Chenango County, New York74 acresView mapDirections
NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Guilford Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)
- 27 ft max depth
- Limited data
Guilford Lake in Chenango County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 13.8 ft visibility. Surface area: 74 acres.
Guilford Lake is a 74-acre lake in Chenango County, New York with an estimated average depth of about 27 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2020-09-27. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Guilford Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water13.8 ft of visibility
Swimming conditions
No readingRecreation use not supported
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Guilford Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Guilford 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 Guilford Lake
These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Guilford 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.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 13.8ft | 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. | 39 | Oligotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.
Ask about Guilford Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~27 ft est.
Surface area
74 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 Guilford Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
2 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
1.2 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,552 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.
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Fishing Guilford Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Guilford Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Guilford Lake Dam (completed 1827), built primarily for water supply on the GUILFORD CREEK; earth-type dam, 15 ft tall and 62 ft long.
- Surface area
- 74 ac
- Normal storage
- 390 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 560 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 2.23 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- TOWN OF GUILFORD
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NY01483 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Guilford 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: Recreation.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit NY0601-0012 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Chenango County
Frequently asked questions about Guilford Lake
Where is Guilford Lake?
- Guilford Lake is a lake in Chenango 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 Guilford Lake?
- Guilford Lake in Chenango County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 13.8 ft visibility. Surface area: 74 acres.
Is Guilford Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Guilford Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Guilford Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Guilford Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 27 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 74 acres.
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Where this data comes from
8 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
NALMS8 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
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)