Jamesville Reservoir
Onondaga County, New York252 acresView mapDirections
NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Jamesville Reservoir. Here is what has been measured.
- 38 ft max depth
- Limited data
Jamesville Reservoir in Onondaga County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.3 ft visibility. Surface area: 252 acres.
Jamesville Reservoir is a 252-acre lake in Onondaga County, New York with an estimated average depth of about 38 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2020-09-20. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Jamesville Reservoir covers about 250 acres in Onondaga County. If you are planning to stay, you can search lake houses and cabins around Jamesville Reservoir on Vrbo, or look for a hotel room near the lake on Booking.com or Expedia.
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Jamesville Reservoir 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 Jamesville Reservoir
These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Jamesville Reservoir, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Murky, only visible to about 5.3 ft. TSI 53.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 5.3ft | 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. | 53 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Jamesville Reservoir
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~38 ft est.
Surface area
252 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 Jamesville Reservoir.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
49 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2.7 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
633 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 Jamesville Reservoir
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Fishing Jamesville Reservoir
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Jamesville Reservoir is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Jamesville Reservoir Dam (completed 1874), built primarily for navigation on the BUTTERNUT CREEK; concrete-type dam, 53 ft tall and 446 ft long.
- Surface area
- 252 ac
- Normal storage
- 3,900 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 6,250 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 46.9 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- New York State Canal Corporation
All listed purposes: Navigation;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NY00418 · Operator website
Regulated Pollution Sources Nearby
5 EPA-permitted facilities operate within about 5 miles of Jamesville Reservoir under Clean Water Act (NPDES) discharge permits. 1 facility has a reported Clean Water Act violation in the past three years.
- Onondaga County DotJamesville · 0.7 mi away · NPDES NY0261785Recent violation
- Jamesville Penitentiary StpSyracuse · 0.8 mi away · NPDES NY0027651
- Hanson - Jamesville QuarryJamesville · 1.4 mi away · NPDES NY0002178
- Nys Dot MS4Various · 3 mi away · NPDES NY0313157
- Lafayette Central High SchoolLafayette · 4.2 mi away · NPDES NY0022471
Facilities permitted to discharge under the Clean Water Act within ~5 miles; proximity does not by itself mean a facility affects this lake. Source: EPA ECHO (ICIS-NPDES), as of 2026-07.
Nearby Lakes in Onondaga County
Frequently asked questions about Jamesville Reservoir
Where is Jamesville Reservoir?
- Jamesville Reservoir is a lake in Onondaga 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 Jamesville Reservoir?
- Jamesville Reservoir in Onondaga County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.3 ft visibility. Surface area: 252 acres.
Is Jamesville Reservoir safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Jamesville Reservoir?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Jamesville Reservoir, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 38 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 252 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
Regulated discharger data from EPA ECHO (ICIS-NPDES)
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)