1
Blue Pit Lake
Cerro Gordo County, Iowa · 0.2 mi from Black Pit Lake
- ++11.5 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (20 vs 55.3 µg/L)
Cleaner Lakes Than Black Pit Lake
4 lakes with lower nutrient and algae readings within 30 miles, ranked by the size of the improvement and by proximity.
Black Pit Lake carries nutrient and algae readings on record. Within 30 miles, 4 lakes read lower. Blue Pit Lake (Cerro Gordo County, 0.2 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.
Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
2
Rudd Lake
Floyd County, Iowa · 16.8 mi from Black Pit Lake
- ++2.5 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (14 vs 55.3 µg/L)
3
Clear Lake
Cerro Gordo County, Iowa · 8.9 mi from Black Pit Lake
4
Clear Lake
Cerro Gordo County, Iowa · 9.8 mi from Black Pit Lake
Stays via Stay22
Where to stay near Black Pit Lake
Compare cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals around Black Pit Lake in Iowa. The 4 lakes above sit within 30 miles, so one base reaches them all. Switch the map to Satellite to see how close each stay is to the water.
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Reading the cohort
4 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Black Pit Lake in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many lower-nutrient neighbors close by, Black Pit Lake's readings reflect something specific to the lake itself, not a regional water-quality ceiling. The neighbor list below isn't a small set of marginal upgrades; it's a real cohort of meaningfully cleaner choices for the same Iowa weekend.
The closest cleaner alternative, Blue Pit Lake in Cerro Gordo County, sits 0.2 miles from Black Pit Lake. At that distance, the substitution cost is essentially zero: same drive time, same regional access, demonstrably cleaner water on the EPA indicators. For repeat visitors who care about clarity or phosphorus levels, swapping the routine to Blue Pit Lake is mostly a habit change rather than a logistics change.
Each lake's nutrient and algae readings — total phosphorus, total nitrogen, chlorophyll-a, and turbidity — are shown beside the EPA National Lakes Assessment 2022 condition class for that lake's own ecoregion, so a reading is compared against the lakes it would naturally resemble. LakeQuality publishes no letter grade. Lower readings mean measurably less nutrient and algae in the water, not better scenery or access: the lake with the clearest, lowest-nutrient water can have worse boat-launch facilities or shoreline access than a neighbor, so the comparison is one input alongside the rest of trip planning. How the readings are classified is on our methodology page.
How this list is built
Sampled lakes on LakeQuality carry readings from EPA Water Quality Portal samples — nutrients and algae measured against EPA National Lakes Assessment ecoregion classes. Secchi is shown, not scored. To suggest cleaner alternatives, we filter lakes within 30 miles to those with strictly lower nutrient and algae readings, then rank by the size of the improvement with a small proximity tiebreak. Cross-state and limited-data lakes are excluded so the list stays locally relevant.