Otisco Lake
Onondaga County, New York2,291 acresView mapDirections
NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Otisco Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Oxygen depletion (low DO)
- 50 ft max depth
- Limited data
Otisco Lake in Onondaga County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.2 ft visibility. Surface area: 2291 acres.
Otisco Lake is a 2,291-acre lake in Onondaga County, New York with an estimated average depth of about 50 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2020-09-23. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Otisco Lake covers about 2,300 acres in Onondaga County. Vrbo is where to look for cabins and lake homes around Otisco Lake, and Booking.com and Expedia search hotels near the lake for your dates.
What Otisco Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Big water2,291 acres
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Otisco Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Otisco Lake 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 Otisco Lake
These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Otisco Lake, 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 5.2 ft. TSI 53.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 5.2ft | 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 Otisco Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~50 ft est.
Surface area
2,291 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 Otisco Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
43 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
12.9 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
784 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 Otisco Lake
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Top-rated places to stay near Otisco Lake
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Fishing Otisco Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Otisco Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Otisco Lake Dam (completed 1956), built primarily for recreation on the NINEMILE CREEK; concrete-type dam, 18 ft tall and 310 ft long.
- Surface area
- 2,291 ac
- Normal storage
- 26,067 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 47,890 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 39.15 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- ONONDAGA COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY (OCWA)
All listed purposes: Recreation;Water Supply.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NY00753 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Otisco Lake 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.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit NY0702-0011 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Onondaga County
Frequently asked questions about Otisco Lake
Where is Otisco Lake?
- Otisco Lake 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 Otisco Lake?
- Otisco Lake in Onondaga County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.2 ft visibility. Surface area: 2291 acres.
Is Otisco Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Otisco Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Otisco Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Otisco Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 50 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 2291 acres.
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Where this data comes from
14 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
NALMS14 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
Impairment status from EPA ATTAINS 303(d) database
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)