Lake Champlain Watershed
Published Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Reports
Phosphorous Reduction Plan - DRAFT
DEC is working with partners to identify and address key phosphorus reduction goals and objectives specific to New York's Lake Champlain Basin watershed. The Department has developed the draft Lake Champlain Phosphorus Reduction Plan (PDF) as a status report for the NY program and a pathway for future development of a comprehensive Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP). The plan recognizes the major efforts that have been undertaken in the last two decades to restore and maintain good water-quality conditions in Lake Champlain and throughout the Basin, and identifies a number of cost effective phosphorous reduction opportunities that can be pursued in the short term, to reduce pollution levels, as the overall WIP is being developed
Waterbody Inventory/Priority Waterbodies List Report
Biological Assessment Report
Links leave DEC website:
Groundwater Study Reports and Data
The links below go to United States Geological Survey (USGS) web pages. The DEC partners with the USGS to conduct research and publish the following reports and data for groundwater resources of the state. An overview of the monitoring project for the entire state, including links to methods, maps, and publications, can be found on USGS's 305(b) Ambient Groundwater Quality Monitoring webpage.
- Published Reports:
- Ground-Water Quality in the Lake Champlain Basin, New York, 2004 - Summary and link to full report.
- Groundwater Quality in the Lake Champlain Basin, New York, 2009 - Summary and link to full report.
- Data for the Lake Champlain Basin can be accessed by:
- Using an interactive map of sample sites listed by sample site number
- Seaching a table of sample sites, or
- Downloading the entire groundwater dataset (Note: you will need to save the web page as a text file (.txt) to import into a spreadsheet)
Other Reports
Lake Champlain Long-term Water Quality and Biological Monitoring Project (leaves DEC website) - A joint NYS, Vermont and Lake Champlain Basin Program project to monitor the biology and water quality of Lake Champlain. Monitoring has been conducted since 1991.
Watershed Management Plans
- Halfway Brook Watershed Management Plan (offsite link)
- Lake George Watershed Management Plan (offsite link)
Facts about this Watershed
Click to view a detailed map of this watershed
The Lake Champlain Watershed (8,234 square miles) drains the area between the Adirondack Mountains in northeastern New York State and the Green Mountains in northwestern Vermont. The long, narrow and deep lake has its outlet at its northern end where it flows through the Richelieu River into Quebec and empties into the Saint Lawrence River.
Location: Northeastern New York State
- Most of Clinton County,
- Much of Essex County,
- Southwest portion of Franklin County,
- Eastern portion of Warren County, and
- Northern portion of Washington County.
Size: 3,050 square miles of land area within New York State.
Rivers and Streams: 4,883 miles of freshwater rivers and streams. Major tributary watersheds to Lake Champlain in New York State:
- Ausable River (767 river miles)
- Saranac River (662 miles)
- Great Chazy River (545 miles)
- Boquet River (532 miles)
- Mettawee River (390 miles)
- Ticonderoga Creek/Lake George (380 miles)
Lakes, Ponds and Reservoirs: Excluding Lake Champlain (278,480 acres), 235 significant freshwater lakes, ponds, and reservoirs (159,302 acres):
- Lake George (28,523 acres)
- Upper Saranac Lake (4,844 acres)
- Lower Saranac Lake (2,145 acres)
- Lake Placid (1,954 acres)
What You Can Do
Each of us lives in a watershed. On our Watershed Stewardship page are some tips on actions that you and your friends can take to help your watershed.
More about Lake Champlain Watershed:
- Lake Champlain Watershed Map - Detailed map of the Lake Champlain Watershed
