Silver Lake
Plymouth County, Massachusetts602 acresView mapDirections
MassDEP publishes the water-quality measurements for Silver Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Impaired · Habitat alterations
- 47 ft max depth
- Limited data
Silver Lake in Plymouth County, Massachusetts has water-quality measurements published by MassDEP, shown here as reported. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 3 µg/L. Surface area: 602 acres.
Silver Lake is a 602-acre lake in Plymouth County, Massachusetts with an estimated average depth of about 47 feet. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, MassDEP, last sampled 2013-08-27. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Silver Lake covers about 600 acres in Plymouth County. If you are planning to stay, you can search lake houses and cabins around Silver Lake on Vrbo, or look for a hotel room near the lake on Booking.com or Expedia.
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Silver Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for habitat alterations, hydrologic alteration, oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Silver Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Silver Lake
These are the measurements MassDEP publishes for Silver 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. Chlorophyll-a 3 µg/L. TSI 41.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | No reading 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) | 3µg/L | Measured, not scored 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. | 41 | Mesotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Moderate nutrients, good water quality
Ask about Silver Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~47 ft est.
Surface area
602 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Massachusetts has not published bathymetry for Silver Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
6 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
5.2 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
39 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.
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Silver Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Silver Lake in Plymouth County, Massachusetts — 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.
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Fishing Silver Lake
Water quality readings over time
2 seasons of samples on record (2013–2015). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+4.2 µg/L/yr2 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Silver Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Silver Lake Dam (completed 1908), built primarily for water supply on the Jones River; earth-type dam, 8 ft tall and 110 ft long.
- Surface area
- 602 ac
- Normal storage
- 15,306 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 16,558 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 4.23 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Low
- Owner
- City of Brockton
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID MA00432 · Operator website
EPA Impairment Status
Silver 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 MA94143 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Plymouth County
Frequently asked questions about Silver Lake
Where is Silver Lake?
- Silver Lake is a lake in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Its water-quality measurements are published by MassDEP and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Silver Lake?
- Silver Lake in Plymouth County, Massachusetts has water-quality measurements published by MassDEP, shown here as reported. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 3 µg/L. Surface area: 602 acres.
Is Silver Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Silver Lake is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for habitat alterations, hydrologic alteration, oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Silver Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Silver Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 47 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 602 acres.
Explore Silver Lake across LakeQuality
Planning a trip around Cape Cod?
Silver Lake is about 40 miles from Cape Cod National Seashore. Crowds there swing hard by season, so the month you pick changes both how busy the park is and what lodging costs.
Best time to visit Cape Cod →More lakes in Massachusetts
Other Lakes in Massachusetts
Mesotrophic Lakes in Massachusetts
Where this data comes from
1 measurement from 1 monitoring station, 2013. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP)
MASSDEP1 sample · 2013
Analytical methods
- 445.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophyll and Pheophytin in Algae by Fluorescence
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)