Little Averill Pond
Essex County, Vermont483 acresView mapDirections
Vermont DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Little Averill Pond. Here is what has been measured.
- Oligotrophic
- Impaired · Hydrologic alteration
- 36 ft max depth
Little Averill Pond in Essex County, Vermont has water-quality measurements published by Vermont DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 19.4 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 6.6 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 1.6 µg/L. Surface area: 483 acres.
Little Averill Pond is a 483-acre cold, clear oligotrophic lake in Essex County, Vermont with an estimated average depth of about 36 feet. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years. Compared to the 8 other monitored lakes in Essex County, Little Averill Pond ranks #2 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, VT DEC, last sampled 2025-08-19. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Little Averill Pond is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water19.4 ft of visibility
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyRecreation use not supported
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. Little Averill Pond is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 4C) for hydrologic alteration. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Little Averill Pond is safe to swim in today is a call for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Little Averill Pond
These are the measurements Vermont DEC publishes for Little Averill Pond, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Crystal clear, you can see 19.4 ft down. Phosphorus 6.6 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 1.6 µg/L. TSI 34.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 19.4ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 6.6µg/L | Good GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 1.6µg/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. | 34 | Oligotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.
Ask about Little Averill Pond
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~36 ft est.
Surface area
483 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Vermont has not published bathymetry for Little Averill Pond.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
4 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
3.6 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,739 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 Little Averill Pond
Water Quality Trend: Improving
Based on 5 years of monitoring (2021–2025).
Water clarity
Worsening4 years
Phosphorus
Improving-0.68 µg/L/yr5 years
Chlorophyll-a
Improving-0.13 µg/L/yr5 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Little Averill Pond is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Little Averill Pond (completed 1850), built primarily for recreation on the Averill Creek; concrete-type dam, 19 ft tall and 180 ft long.
- Surface area
- 483 ac
- Normal storage
- 0 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 3,245 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 4.46 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Low
- Owner
- HYDRO COATICOOK
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VT00181 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Little Averill Pond is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2022 EPA reporting cycle (IR category 4C).
Causes of impairment
Designated uses not supporting: Aquatic life, Recreation.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit VT17-03L01 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Essex County
Frequently asked questions about Little Averill Pond
Where is Little Averill Pond?
- Little Averill Pond is a lake in Essex County, Vermont. Its water-quality measurements are published by Vermont DEC and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Little Averill Pond?
- Little Averill Pond in Essex County, Vermont has water-quality measurements published by Vermont DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 19.4 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 6.6 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 1.6 µg/L. Surface area: 483 acres.
Is Little Averill Pond safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Little Averill Pond is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 4C) for hydrologic alteration. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Little Averill Pond?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Little Averill Pond, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 36 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 483 acres.
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Where this data comes from
105 measurements from 2 monitoring stations, 2020–2025. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- Vermont Dept of Environmental Conservation
1VTDECWQ105 samples · 2020–2025
Analytical methods
- 4500 P H ~ Manual Digestion and Flow Injection Analysis for Total Phosphorus
- EPA approved Alternate Test Procedure for 4500 P H. Has a 28 day hold without acid preservation.
- 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
Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)