Hope Mills Lake
Cumberland County, North Carolina68 acresView mapDirections
NC DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Hope Mills Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Eutrophic
- 26 ft max depth
- Limited data
Hope Mills Lake in Cumberland County, North Carolina has water-quality measurements published by NC DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 3.3 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 11.5 µg/L. Surface area: 68 acres.
Hope Mills Lake is a 68-acre productive, nutrient-rich eutrophic lake in Cumberland County, North Carolina with an estimated average depth of about 26 feet. Compared to the 1 other monitored lakes in Cumberland County, Hope Mills Lake ranks #1 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NCDEQ, last sampled 2023-09-21. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Hope Mills Lake covers about 68 acres in Cumberland County. For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Hope Mills Lake on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyLimited data
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 Hope Mills Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Hope Mills Lake
These are the measurements NC DEQ publishes for Hope Mills 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 3.3 ft of visibility. Phosphorus 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 11.5 µg/L. TSI 56.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 3.3ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 30µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 11.5µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 56 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Hope Mills Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~26 ft est.
Surface area
68 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. North Carolina has not published bathymetry for Hope Mills Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
97 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
1 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
108 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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Stays near Hope Mills Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Hope Mills Lake in Cumberland County, North Carolina — 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 Hope Mills Lake
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Fishing Hope Mills Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Hope Mills Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Hope Mills Dam #1 (completed 1921), built primarily for recreation on the Little Rockfish Creek; concrete-type dam, 33 ft tall and 550 ft long.
- Surface area
- 68 ac
- Normal storage
- 816 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 1,175 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 96.1 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- Town of Hope Mills
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NC01121 · Operator website · Matched by proximity (0.55 km)
Nearby Lakes in Cumberland County
Frequently asked questions about Hope Mills Lake
Where is Hope Mills Lake?
- Hope Mills Lake is a lake in Cumberland County, North Carolina. Its water-quality measurements are published by NC DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Hope Mills Lake?
- Hope Mills Lake in Cumberland County, North Carolina has water-quality measurements published by NC DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 3.3 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 30 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 11.5 µg/L. Surface area: 68 acres.
Is Hope Mills Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Hope Mills Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Hope Mills Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 26 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 68 acres.
Explore Hope Mills Lake across LakeQuality
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Other Lakes in North Carolina
Eutrophic Lakes in North Carolina
Where this data comes from
40 measurements from 2 monitoring stations, 2023. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- North Carolina Dept of Environmental Quality NCDEQ-DWR WQX
21NC03WQ40 samples · 2023
Analytical methods
- WSSSOP
- Phosphorus by Colorimetry
- 445.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophyll and Pheophytin in Algae by Fluorescence
- 2130 B ~ Nephelometric Method
Monitoring station identifiers (2)
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)