Lake Onega water per year, of which 46% are industrial and household water, 25% is stormwater runoff and 16% is melioration-related drainage. This drainage contains of phosphorus and of nitrogen; respectively of these elements are removed through the River Svir whereas the rest accumulates in the lake. Ships and motor boats (about 8,000 units) bring oil pollution at the level of about per navigation year, as well as phenols (), lead () and oxides of sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon. The lake basin is a major source of granite, marble and black schist in Russia which have been exploited in the area since
Lake Onega of the 15th–20th centuries. The complex includes a UNESCO World Heritage site, Kizhi Pogost. Eastern shores of the lake contain about 1,200 petroglyphs (rock engravings) dated to the 4th–2nd millennia BC. The major cities on the lake are Petrozavodsk, Kondopoga and Medvezhyegorsk. The lake is of glacial-tectonic origin and is a small remnant of a larger body of water which existed in this area during an Ice Age. In geologic terms, the lake is rather young, formed – like almost all lakes in northern Europe – through the carving activity of the inland ice sheets in the latter part of