Paintsville Lake
Johnson County, Kentucky1,139 acresView mapDirections
Kentucky DOW publishes the water-quality measurements for Paintsville Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Mercury
- 60 ft max depth
- Public access
- Limited data
Paintsville Lake in Johnson County, Kentucky has water-quality measurements published by Kentucky DOW, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.2 ft visibility. Surface area: 1139 acres.
Paintsville Lake is a 1,139-acre lake in Johnson County, Kentucky with an estimated average depth of about 60 feet. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years. Limited fish-species data available. Public access is available with 1 public boat landing.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, KY DOW, last sampled 2019-08-07. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Paintsville Lake covers about 1,100 acres in Johnson County. It has one public boat landing. If you are planning to stay, you can search lake houses and cabins around Paintsville Lake on Vrbo, or look for a hotel room near the lake on Booking.com or Expedia.
What Paintsville Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Boat launch1 documented ramp
- Camping1 public campground nearby
- Big water1,139 acres
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Paintsville Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Paintsville Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Kentucky Division of Water and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Paintsville Lake
These are the measurements Kentucky DOW publishes for Paintsville 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 Paintsville Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~60 ft est.
Surface area
1,139 acres
Public access
Yes
Listed by Kentucky DOW
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Kentucky has not published bathymetry for Paintsville Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
105 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
6 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
722 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.
Recreation & Access
- Paintsville Lake State ParkPublic
Named access points in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory, within about 3 miles. More lakes with boat ramps
Public campgrounds near Paintsville Lake
- Paintsville Lake State Park Campground1.2 km
Nearest public campgrounds in the USGS National Map inventory, within about 3 miles. An empty list means USGS records no campground that close, which is not the same as camping being unavailable. Where the source gives an official reservation link, it is used; the cabin and hotel search does not cover campsites. More camping lakes
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Paintsville Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Paintsville Lake in Johnson County, Kentucky — 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 Paintsville Lake
Prices for Oct 30–Nov 1, 4 adults. Change dates on the map below.
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Fishing Paintsville Lake
Water quality readings over time
2 seasons of samples on record (2012–2017). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Phosphorus
Improving-1.4 µg/L/yr2 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Paintsville Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Paintsville Dam (completed 1980), built primarily for flood risk reduction on the Paint Creek; rockfill-type dam, 160 ft tall and 1,600 ft long.
- Surface area
- 1,139 ac
- Normal storage
- 40,700 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 73,500 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 93 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- USACE - Huntington District
All listed purposes: Flood Risk Reduction;Other;Fish and Wildlife Pond;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID KY03066 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Paintsville Lake is officially listed as impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) in the 2024 EPA reporting cycle (IR category 5).
Causes of impairment
Designated uses not supporting: Fish consumption.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit KY-2058 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Johnson County
Frequently asked questions about Paintsville Lake
Where is Paintsville Lake?
- Paintsville Lake is a lake in Johnson County, Kentucky. Its water-quality measurements are published by Kentucky DOW and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Paintsville Lake?
- Paintsville Lake in Johnson County, Kentucky has water-quality measurements published by Kentucky DOW, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 5.2 ft visibility. Surface area: 1139 acres.
Is Paintsville Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Paintsville Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Paintsville Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Paintsville Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 60 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 1139 acres.
Are there boat ramps on Paintsville Lake?
- Paintsville Lake has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Named access points include Paintsville Lake State Park. Public access is listed as yes.
Can I fish at Paintsville Lake?
- Paintsville Lake has 1 documented boat landing in the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory. Seasons, size and bag limits, and whether you need a license are set by Kentucky's fish and wildlife agency, so check its current regulations before you go.
Are there campgrounds on Paintsville Lake?
- Paintsville Lake has 1 public campground from USGS The National Map within 5 km, including Paintsville Lake State Park Campground. This is a location join, not a booking. Cabins and hotels are listed separately; campsite reservations use the official link when the source provides one.
Explore Paintsville Lake across LakeQuality
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Where this data comes from
29 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2019. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- North American Lake Management Society
NALMS29 samples · 2019
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)
Named boat-access points from the USGS National Boat Ramps inventory
Public campgrounds from USGS The National Map Structures, within about 3 miles