What is the cleanest lake in Tennessee?

Piney River Lake in Rhea County has the cleanest nutrient and algae readings in Tennessee, with 6.4 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 Tennessee

Piney River Lake in Rhea County leads the rankings on measured clarity and nutrients and 6.4 ft of clarity. Below are the top 17 cleanest monitored lakes in Tennessee, ranked on EPA nutrient and algae measurements.

Ranked List

#	Lake	County	Clarity	Phosphorus	Algae
1	Piney River Lake	Rhea	6.4 ft	18 µg/L	-
2	Hiwassee River Lake	Bradley	4.1 ft	29.3 µg/L	-
3	Tennessee River Lake	Rhea	7.1 ft	29.1 µg/L	-
4	Tennessee River Lake	Knox	-	33 µg/L	-
5	Tennessee River Lake	Roane	-	28.6 µg/L	-
6	Tennessee River Lake	Marion	7.6 ft	35.4 µg/L	-
7	Tennessee River Lake	Henry	-	56.5 µg/L	-
8	Ocoee River Lake	Polk	7.5 ft	50 µg/L	-
9	Clinch River Lake	Roane	-	36 µg/L	-
10	Cumberland River Lake	Davidson	-	69.4 µg/L	-
11	Cumberland River Lake	Wilson	-	35 µg/L	-
12	Big Sandy River Lake	Benton	-	64 µg/L	-
13	Beech River Lake	Decatur	-	96 µg/L	-
14	Duck River Lake	Humphreys	-	200 µg/L	-
15	Robertson Creek Lake	Hawkins	-	48.3 µg/L	-
16	Mckellar Lake	Shelby	-	76 µg/L	-
17	Watauga River Lake	Washington	-	36.8 µg/L	-

Ranked List

More Answers for Tennessee