Pawnee Lake
Pawnee County, Oklahoma530 acresView mapDirections
Oklahoma DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Pawnee Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- 48 ft max depth
- Limited data
Pawnee Lake in Pawnee County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1.6 ft visibility. Surface area: 530 acres.
Pawnee Lake is a 530-acre lake in Pawnee County, Oklahoma with an estimated average depth of about 48 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, ODEQ, last sampled 2017-07-05. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Pawnee Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Pawnee Lake
These are the measurements Oklahoma DEQ publishes for Pawnee 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 1.6 ft of visibility. TSI 70.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 1.6ft | 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. | 70 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Pawnee Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~48 ft est.
Surface area
530 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Oklahoma has not published bathymetry for Pawnee Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
13 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
3.1 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
873 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 Pawnee Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Pawnee Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Pawnee Lake (completed 1932), built primarily for water supply on the Skedee Creek; earth-type dam, 45 ft tall and 1,908 ft long.
- Surface area
- 530 ac
- Normal storage
- 3,855 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 5,245 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 12.98 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- City of Pawnee
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID OK11043 · Operator website
Nearby Lakes in Pawnee County
Frequently asked questions about Pawnee Lake
Where is Pawnee Lake?
- Pawnee Lake is a lake in Pawnee County, Oklahoma. Its water-quality measurements are published by Oklahoma DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Pawnee Lake?
- Pawnee Lake in Pawnee County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1.6 ft visibility. Surface area: 530 acres.
Is Pawnee Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Pawnee Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Pawnee Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 48 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 530 acres.
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Where this data comes from
9 measurements from 3 monitoring stations, 2016–2017. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- OWRB Lakes Monitoring
OKWRB-LAKES_WQX9 samples · 2016–2017
Analytical methods
- OWRB Lakes Field Data Collection
Monitoring station identifiers (3)
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
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)