Swift Creek Lake Sta
Chesterfield County, Virginia150 acresView mapDirections
This is the name Virginia DEQ records for this water. It can describe one sampling location rather than the water as a whole.
Virginia DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Swift Creek Lake Sta. Here is what has been measured.
- Hypereutrophic
- Impaired · Oxygen depletion (low DO)
- 25 ft max depth
Swift Creek Lake Sta in Chesterfield County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1.6 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 60 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 35 µg/L. Surface area: 150 acres.
Swift Creek Lake Sta is a 150-acre highly nutrient-loaded hypereutrophic lake in Chesterfield County, Virginia with an estimated average depth of about 25 feet. Overall water quality is declining over recent sampling years. Compared to the 6 other monitored lakes in Chesterfield County, Swift Creek Lake Sta ranks #7 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, Virginia DEQ, last sampled 2026-07-06. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyAlgae risk
Based on clarity and algae readings from past sampling — there is no live water temperature and a current cyanobacteria reading for this lake. Check your state or county health department before you swim.
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Swift Creek Lake Sta is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Swift Creek Lake Sta is safe to swim in today is a call for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Swift Creek Lake Sta
These are the measurements Virginia DEQ publishes for Swift Creek Lake Sta, 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. Phosphorus 60 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a 35 µg/L. TSI 66.
| 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 | 60µg/L | Poor GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | 35µg/L | Poor GoodFairPoor |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 66 | Hypereutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Very high nutrients, dense algae, poor clarity
Ask about Swift Creek Lake Sta
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~25 ft est.
Surface area
150 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Virginia has not published bathymetry for Swift Creek Lake Sta.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
98 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
2.5 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
161 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 Swift Creek Lake Sta
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Swift Creek Lake Sta in Chesterfield County, Virginia — 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. The water-quality readings cover nutrients and algae, not lodging. Cabins and rentals around Swift Creek Lake Sta are listed below.
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Fishing Swift Creek Lake Sta
Water quality readings over time
2 seasons of samples on record (2025–2026). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Water clarity
Worsening2 years
Phosphorus
Worsening+30 µg/L/yr2 years
Chlorophyll-a
Worsening+11.1 µg/L/yr2 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Swift Creek Lake Sta is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Swift Creek Dam, built primarily for recreation on the Swift Creek; gravity-type dam, 31 ft tall and 163 ft long.
- Surface area
- 150 ac
- Normal storage
- 675 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 7,564 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 95.32 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- Department of Conservation & Recreation - Division of State Parks
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID VA041004 · Operator website · Matched by proximity (0.22 km)
EPA Impairment Status
Swift Creek Lake Sta 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 VAP-J17L_SFT01A98 · Official waterbody report
Nearby Lakes in Chesterfield County
Frequently asked questions about Swift Creek Lake Sta
Where is Swift Creek Lake Sta?
- Swift Creek Lake Sta is in Chesterfield County, Virginia. This is the name Virginia DEQ records for this water. It can describe one sampling location rather than the water as a whole. Its water-quality measurements are published by Virginia DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Swift Creek Lake Sta?
- Swift Creek Lake Sta in Chesterfield County, Virginia has water-quality measurements published by Virginia DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1.6 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 60 µg/L. Chlorophyll-a (algae): 35 µg/L. Surface area: 150 acres.
Is Swift Creek Lake Sta safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Swift Creek Lake Sta is listed impaired under Clean Water Act §303(d) (IR 5) for oxygen depletion (low DO). Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Swift Creek Lake Sta?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Swift Creek Lake Sta, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 25 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 150 acres.
Explore Swift Creek Lake Sta across LakeQuality
More lakes in Virginia
Other Lakes in Virginia
Hypereutrophic Lakes in Virginia
Where this data comes from
44 measurements from 1 monitoring station, 2025–2026. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
21VASWCB44 samples · 2025–2026
Analytical methods
- Tyler, John. 1968. The secchi disk, Limnology and Oceanograpy, 13(1):1-6.
- Total Phosphorus After Block Digestion
- 445.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophyll and Pheophytin in Algae by Fluorescence
- 446.0 ~ EPA; Chlorophylls and Pheopigments in Phytoplankton by Spectrophotometry
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)