Tuscarora Lake
Madison County, New York362 acresView mapDirections
NY DEC publishes the water-quality measurements for Tuscarora Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- 63 ft max depth
- Limited data
Tuscarora Lake in Madison County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 20.5 ft visibility. Surface area: 362 acres.
Tuscarora Lake is a 362-acre lake in Madison County, New York with an estimated average depth of about 63 feet.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, NYSDEC, last sampled 2020-08-16. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
What Tuscarora Lake is good for
From access and monitoring records, not editorial picks.
- Clear water20.5 ft of visibility
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Tuscarora Lake 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 Tuscarora Lake
These are the measurements NY DEC publishes for Tuscarora Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Crystal clear, you can see 20.5 ft down. TSI 34.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 20.5ft | 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. | 34 | Oligotrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
Low nutrients, clear water. No reading is a swimming clearance.
Ask about Tuscarora Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~63 ft est.
Surface area
362 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 Tuscarora Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
7 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
3.9 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
1,503 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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Stays near Tuscarora Lake
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Fishing Tuscarora Lake
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Tuscarora Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the Erieville Reservoir Dam (completed 1850), built primarily for navigation on the CHITTENANGO CREEK; earth-type dam, 55 ft tall and 2,000 ft long.
- Surface area
- 362 ac
- Normal storage
- 6,609 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 10,362 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 5.31 sq mi
- Hazard class
- High
- Owner
- New York State Canal Corporation
All listed purposes: Navigation;Recreation.
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID NY00369 · Operator website
Nearby Lakes in Madison County
Frequently asked questions about Tuscarora Lake
Where is Tuscarora Lake?
- Tuscarora Lake is a lake in Madison 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 Tuscarora Lake?
- Tuscarora Lake in Madison County, New York has water-quality measurements published by NY DEC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 20.5 ft visibility. Surface area: 362 acres.
Is Tuscarora Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Tuscarora Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Tuscarora Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 63 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 362 acres.
Explore Tuscarora Lake across LakeQuality
Depth, room, public access, and the state wake-sport rules
8.8 mi away · 167 ft
Species activity outlook by water temperature and season
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Where this data comes from
4 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
NALMS4 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
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)