Quemado Dam Lake
Catron County, New Mexico130 acresView mapDirections
No nutrient or algae sampling on record from NMED for this lake.
- Impaired · Mercury
- 14 ft max depth
- Public access
- Limited data
Quemado Dam Lake in Catron County, New Mexico has water-quality measurements published by NMED, shown here as reported. Surface area: 130 acres.
Quemado Dam Lake is a 130-acre lake in Catron County, New Mexico with an estimated average depth of about 14 feet. Limited fish-species data available. Public access is available.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NMED, last sampled 2022-05-24. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Quemado Dam Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Camping11 public campgrounds nearby
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Quemado Dam Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury, nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Quemado Dam Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the New Mexico Environment Department and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Quemado Dam Lake
These are the measurements NMED publishes for Quemado Dam Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
No clarity data.
Ask about Quemado Dam Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~14 ft est.
Surface area
130 acres
Public access
Yes
Listed by NMED
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. New Mexico has not published bathymetry for Quemado Dam Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
57 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
7,648 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
Public campgrounds near Quemado Dam Lake
- Juniper Campground (Quemado Lake)0.6 kmReserve
- Quemado Lake - Juniper Cg0.7 km
- Quemado Lake - Pinon Cg1.0 km
- Piñon Campground1.1 km
- Quemado Lake - Pinon Group Sites1.3 km
- Quemado Lake - El Caso Cg #12.2 km
- Quemado Lake - El Caso Cg #22.4 km
- El Caso I-IV Campground2.4 km
- Quemado Lake - El Caso Cg #32.5 km
- Quemado Lake - El Caso Cg #43.2 km
- Quemado Lake - El Caso Cg #53.8 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 Quemado Dam Lake
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Top-rated places to stay near Quemado Dam Lake
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Fishing Quemado Dam Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Quemado Dam Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Quemado Lake Dam (completed 1971), built primarily for recreation on the Largo Creek; earth-type dam, 100 ft tall and 924 ft long.
- Surface area
- 130 ac
- Normal storage
- 1,990 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 5,538 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 62 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISH
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NM00139 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Quemado Dam 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: Aquatic life.
Source: EPA ATTAINS assessment unit NM-9000.B_096 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Catron County
Frequently asked questions about Quemado Dam Lake
Where is Quemado Dam Lake?
- Quemado Dam Lake is a lake in Catron County, New Mexico. Its water-quality measurements are published by NMED and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Quemado Dam Lake?
- Quemado Dam Lake in Catron County, New Mexico has water-quality measurements published by NMED, shown here as reported. Surface area: 130 acres.
Is Quemado Dam Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Quemado Dam Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for mercury, nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Quemado Dam Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Quemado Dam Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 14 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 130 acres.
Can I fish at Quemado Dam Lake?
- Public access to Quemado Dam Lake is listed as yes on the lake record. Seasons, size and bag limits, and whether you need a license are set by New Mexico's fish and wildlife agency, so check its current regulations before you go.
Are there campgrounds on Quemado Dam Lake?
- Quemado Dam Lake has 11 public campgrounds from USGS The National Map within 5 km, including Juniper Campground (Quemado Lake), Quemado Lake - Juniper Cg, Quemado Lake - Pinon Cg, Piñon 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.
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Where this data comes from
4 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2014–2022. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- NM Environmental Dept./SWQB
21NMEX_WQX4 samples · 2014–2022
Analytical methods
- Phosphorus by Colorimetry
- 10200 H 2 ~ Chlorophyll a-b-c Determination by spectrophotometer
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)
Public campgrounds from USGS The National Map Structures, within about 3 miles