Lake Witten
Tazewell County, Virginia62 acresView mapDirections
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Lake Witten. Here is what has been measured.
- Mesotrophic
- Impaired · Mercury
- 13 ft max depth
Lake Witten in Tazewell County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 11.3 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 10 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 2.1 µg/L. Surface area: 61.8 acres.
Lake Witten is a 62-acre mesotrophic lake in Tazewell County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 13 feet. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2026-06-10. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Lake Witten covers about 62 acres in Tazewell County. For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Lake Witten on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.
What Lake Witten is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water11.3 ft of visibility
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyLow algae
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. Lake Witten is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury, oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Lake Witten 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 Lake Witten
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Lake Witten, 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 11.3 ft. Phosphorus 10 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 2.1 µg/L. TSI 39.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 11.3ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 10µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 2.1µg/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. | 39 | Mesotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Moderate nutrients, good water quality
Ask about Lake Witten
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~13 ft est.
Surface area
62 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Virginia has not published bathymetry for Lake Witten.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
4 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2.4 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
2,552 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.
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Lake Witten
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Lake Witten in Tazewell 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.
Top-rated places to stay near Lake Witten
Prices for Oct 30–Nov 1, 4 adults. Change dates on the map below.
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Follow Lake Witten’s readings
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Fishing Lake Witten
Water quality readings over time
3 seasons of samples on record (2019–2026). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Stable3 years
Phosphorus
Stable-0.15 µg/L/yr3 years
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+0.07 µg/L/yr3 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Lake Witten is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Upper Clinch Valley Dam #1b, built primarily for flood risk reduction on the Cavitts Creek; earth-type dam, 76 ft tall and 460 ft long.
- Surface area
- 61.8 ac
- Normal storage
- 931 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 2,320 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 2.57 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- Tazewell County Board of Supervisors
All listed purposes: Flood Risk Reduction;Recreation;Water Supply.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA185005 · Operator website · Matched by proximity (0.07 km)
EPA Impairment Status
Lake Witten 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: Aquatic life, Fish consumption.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit VAS-P01L_CAV01A10 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Tazewell County
Frequently asked questions about Lake Witten
Where is Lake Witten?
- Lake Witten is a lake in Tazewell County, Virginia. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Lake Witten?
- Lake Witten in Tazewell County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 11.3 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 10 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 2.1 µg/L. Surface area: 61.8 acres.
Is Lake Witten safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Lake Witten is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury, oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Lake Witten?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Lake Witten, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 13 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 61.8 acres.
Explore Lake Witten across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
66 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2019–2026. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB66 samples · 2019–2026
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
Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)