What is the "Cleaner Lake Finder"?

A tool that surfaces lakes with lower nutrient and algae readings within 30 miles of a lake you already know. Every reading is nutrients and algae against EPA National Lakes Assessment ecoregion classes. Secchi is shown, not scored. The finder filters to lakes with strictly lower nutrient and algae readings in the same state, then ranks by the size of the improvement and by proximity.

Open any LakeQuality lake page. If a cleaner alternative exists within 30 miles, the "Cleaner Lakes Nearby" widget appears with the top suggestions. Or browse this landing page for the biggest upgrade opportunities across all 41 covered states.

Why isn't every lake in this list?

A lake that already reads as clean as any within reach has no cleaner alternative to point to, so no finder page is generated for it.

Cleaner Lake Finder: Lower Nutrient Readings Within 30 Miles

Lakes where the closest cleaner alternative offers the largest improvement in the readings.

How this works

Data: EPA Water Quality Portal samples — phosphorus, chlorophyll-a, nitrogen, turbidity. Secchi is shown, not scored.
Readings: EPA National Lakes Assessment 2022 ecoregion classes. See methodology.
Filter: within 30 miles, same state, strictly lower nutrient and algae readings, sufficient monitoring data.
Rank: by the size of the improvement, with a small proximity tiebreak.

Biggest cleanup swaps

How this works