What is the cleanest lake in New York?

Queneska Island Lake in Essex County has the cleanest nutrient and algae readings in New York, with 17.4 feet of measured water clarity.

How are these rankings calculated?

Nutrients and algae, total phosphorus, nitrogen, chlorophyll-a and turbidity, are read against EPA National Lakes Assessment 2022 condition classes for that lake’s ecoregion. Water clarity (Secchi depth) is measured and shown separately. Lakes without enough recent samples are listed without a condition class rather than ranked low. Source data comes from the EPA Water Quality Portal.

Cleanest Lakes in New York

Queneska Island Lake in Essex County leads the rankings on measured clarity and nutrients and 17.4 ft of clarity. Below are the top 8 cleanest monitored lakes in New York, ranked on EPA nutrient and algae measurements.

Ranked List

#	Lake	County	Clarity	Phosphorus	Algae
1	Queneska Island Lake	Essex	17.4 ft	15 µg/L	3.4 µg/L
2	South Lake	Herkimer	-	4 µg/L	1.1 µg/L
3	West Pond	Herkimer	-	10 µg/L	3.3 µg/L
4	Squash Pond	Herkimer	-	11 µg/L	2 µg/L
5	Main Section Lake	Clinton	14.8 ft	12.1 µg/L	4.7 µg/L
6	Little Clear Pond	Franklin	-	16.5 µg/L	5.2 µg/L
7	Hope Pond	Franklin	-	10.5 µg/L	7.6 µg/L
8	Southern Section Lake	Washington	2 ft	52.7 µg/L	13.5 µg/L

Ranked List

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