Underground mining activities have resulted in largescale land subsidence and submergence in the Huainan and Huaibei coal mine areas, Anhui Province. As a result, it produces landscapes of many small lakes in the coal mine areas. At present, the characteristics of water quality in this type of lakes are not clear, which is urgent for their scientific planning and management. Six lakes, among which three are in the Huainan mining areas (HNPJ, HNXQ and HNGQ) and three in the Huaibei mining areas (HBDH, HBZH and HBNH), were selected as research areas. Different evaluation methods for water quality were employed to determine the water quality goals and functions of such type of lakes based on field monitoring data. Then a mixing model was chosen for calculation of water environmental capacity of each lake. The results showed that the lakes in the Huainan mining area can be classified as the Grade Ⅲ according to the national water quality criteria, while HBZH and HBNH mainly belong to the Grade Ⅱ. In order to maintain the water quality to meet the Grade Ⅲ criteria, the lakes in the Huainan mining area requires nitrogen control by cutting down 8.3 and 37.4 t·a^-1 of TN for HNPJ and HNXQ, respectively. COD is a major concern for the Huaibei mining area, and reductions of 25.8 and 87.7 t·a^-1 of COD from HBDH and HBZH are necessary to achieve the water quality goals of Grade Ⅳ and Grade Ⅲ, respectively.