What is the cleanest lake in Virginia?

Station Lake in Virginia Beach city County has the cleanest nutrient and algae readings in Virginia, with 1.3 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.

Lakes With Algae Readings in Virginia

19 lakes in Virginia report elevated algae levels (chlorophyll-a above 20 µg/L). These lakes are most likely to develop blue-green algae blooms during warm, calm summer weather. Avoid swimming during visible blooms and rinse pets after contact.

Ranked List

#	Lake	County	Clarity	Phosphorus	Algae
1	Station Lake	Virginia Beach city	1.3 ft	185 µg/L	85.9 µg/L
2	Sta Lake	Virginia Beach city	1 ft	150 µg/L	85.6 µg/L
3	Ut To Chk Lake	Hanover	-	135 µg/L	63.3 µg/L
4	North Anna River Lake	Spotsylvania	-	-	59.5 µg/L
5	Bryants Pond	Sussex	-	420 µg/L	49.6 µg/L
6	Swift Creek Lake Sta	Chesterfield	1.6 ft	60 µg/L	35 µg/L
7	Near Dam Lake	Cumberland	2.1 ft	60 µg/L	33.6 µg/L
8	Upper Branch of Terry'S Run Lake	Spotsylvania	0.7 ft	-	33.4 µg/L
9	Fluvanna Ruritan Lake	Fluvanna	3.3 ft	40 µg/L	30 µg/L
10	Lake Nelson	Nelson	3.1 ft	40 µg/L	29.3 µg/L
11	Brunswick County Lake	Brunswick	2.3 ft	50 µg/L	28.6 µg/L
12	Speights Run	Suffolk city	3.1 ft	40 µg/L	25.8 µg/L
13	Totier Creek Reservoir	Albemarle	3 ft	50 µg/L	25.8 µg/L
14	Falling Creek Lake	Chesterfield	2.3 ft	30 µg/L	25.7 µg/L
15	Lake Culpeper	Culpeper	2 ft	55 µg/L	24.9 µg/L
16	At Dam Lake Albemarle	Albemarle	3.4 ft	30 µg/L	24.1 µg/L
17	Powhatan Lake	Powhatan	2.3 ft	40 µg/L	23.4 µg/L
18	Lake Anna	Spotsylvania	3.3 ft	30 µg/L	21.2 µg/L
19	Station Lake	Suffolk city	3.6 ft	40 µg/L	20.9 µg/L

Ranked List

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