Plymouth Reservoir
Chenango County, New York77 acresView mapDirections
NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Plymouth Reservoir. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen)
- 23 ft max depth
- Limited data
Plymouth Reservoir in Chenango County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 6.2 ft visibility. Surface area: 77 acres.
Plymouth Reservoir is a 77-acre lake in Chenango County, New York with an estimated average depth of about 23 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2020-09-12. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Plymouth Reservoir covers about 77 acres in Chenango County. For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Plymouth Reservoir on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.
Swimming conditions
No readingRecreation use not supported
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Plymouth Reservoir is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Plymouth Reservoir 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 Plymouth Reservoir
These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Plymouth Reservoir, 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 6.2 ft. TSI 51.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 6.2ft | 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. | 51 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Plymouth Reservoir
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~23 ft est.
Surface area
77 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 Plymouth Reservoir.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
1 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
1.4 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,745 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 Plymouth Reservoir
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Plymouth Reservoir is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Plymouth Reservoir Dam (completed 1827), built primarily for recreation on the RESERVOIR CREEK; rockfill-type dam, 12 ft tall and 150 ft long.
- Surface area
- 77 ac
- Normal storage
- 320 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 400 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 1.05 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Significant
- Owner
- PLYMOUTH RESERVOIR ASSOCIATION
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NY01481 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Plymouth Reservoir 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: Recreation.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit NY0602-0014 · Official waterbody report
Regulated Pollution Sources Nearby
1 EPA-permitted facility operate within about 5 miles of Plymouth Reservoir under Clean Water Act (NPDES) discharge permits.
- Camp PharsaliaPharsalia · 5 mi away · NPDES NY0103781
Facilities permitted to discharge under the Clean Water Act within ~5 miles; proximity does not by itself mean a facility affects this lake. Source: EPA ECHO (ICIS-NPDES), as of 2026-07.
Nearby Lakes in Chenango County
Frequently asked questions about Plymouth Reservoir
Where is Plymouth Reservoir?
- Plymouth Reservoir is a lake in Chenango 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 Plymouth Reservoir?
- Plymouth Reservoir in Chenango County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 6.2 ft visibility. Surface area: 77 acres.
Is Plymouth Reservoir safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Plymouth Reservoir is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Plymouth Reservoir?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Plymouth Reservoir, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 23 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 77 acres.
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Where this data comes from
8 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
NALMS8 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
Regulated discharger data from EPA ECHO (ICIS-NPDES)
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)