Olpe City Lake
Lyon County, Kansas75 acresView mapDirections
KDHE publishes the water-quality measurements for Olpe City Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)
- 36 ft max depth
- Limited data
Olpe City Lake in Lyon County, Kansas has water-quality measurements published by KDHE, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 0.5 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 115 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 13 µg/L. Surface area: 75 acres.
Olpe City Lake is a 75-acre lake in Lyon County, Kansas with an estimated average depth of about 36 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, KDHE, last sampled 2014-08-06. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
No readingRecreation use not supported
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Olpe City Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 4A) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), sediment / turbidity. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Olpe City Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Olpe City Lake
These are the measurements KDHE publishes for Olpe City 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 0.5 ft of visibility. Phosphorus 115 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 13 µg/L. TSI 72.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 0.5ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 115µg/L | Measured, not scored The nutrient that most limits algae growth in freshwater. More phosphorus, more algae potential. |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 13µg/L | Measured, not scored 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. | 72 | Hypereutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Very high nutrients, dense algae, poor clarity
Ask about Olpe City Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~36 ft est.
Surface area
75 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Kansas has not published bathymetry for Olpe City Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
3 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
1.6 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,207 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 Olpe City Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Olpe City Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Olpe City Lake (completed 1965), built primarily for water supply on the Eagle Creek-Tr; earth-type dam, 43 ft tall and 1,700 ft long.
- Surface area
- 75 ac
- Normal storage
- 475 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 879 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 1.52 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Low
- Owner
- OLPE, CITY OF
All listed purposes: Water Supply;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID KS02502 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Olpe City Lake is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2024 EPA reporting cycle (IR category 4A).
Causes of impairment
Designated uses not supporting: Drinking water, Aquatic life, Recreation.
A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan has been approved.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit KS-LM041001 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Lyon County
Frequently asked questions about Olpe City Lake
Where is Olpe City Lake?
- Olpe City Lake is a lake in Lyon County, Kansas. Its water-quality measurements are published by KDHE and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Olpe City Lake?
- Olpe City Lake in Lyon County, Kansas has water-quality measurements published by KDHE, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 0.5 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 115 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 13 µg/L. Surface area: 75 acres.
Is Olpe City Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Olpe City Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 4A) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen), sediment / turbidity. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Olpe City Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Olpe City Lake, 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 75 acres.
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Where this data comes from
5 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2014. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- Kansas Department Of Health And Environment
21KAN001_WQX5 samples · 2014
Analytical methods
- Depth, Secchi disk depth
- Phosphorus by Colorimetry
- 10200 H ~ Chlorophyll a-b-c Determination
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)