1
ASeymour Lake
Orleans County, Vermont · 9.2 mi from Clyde Pond
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++15.2 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (7.8 vs 14.7 µg/L)
Cleaner Lakes Than Clyde Pond
3 higher-graded lakes within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.
Clyde Pond carries a Grade B (Good) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 3 lakes hold a higher grade. Seymour Lake (Orleans County, Grade A, 9.2 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.
Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
2
ALake Salem
Orleans County, Vermont · 3.2 mi from Clyde Pond
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++3.7 ft water clarity
3
ALake Derby
Orleans County, Vermont · 6.7 mi from Clyde Pond
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- +Lower phosphorus (9.6 vs 14.7 µg/L)
Reading the cohort
Only 3 lakes within a 30-mile radius score better than Clyde Pond's Grade B. The narrow set of options reflects either a fairly clean lake to begin with or a region without a wide range of cleaner alternatives — the trip-planning decision is more constrained than the headline "cleaner lakes nearby" suggests.
Seymour Lake (Orleans County, Grade A) is the closest cleaner option at 9.2 miles from Clyde Pond — close enough to be a genuine substitute for most users, far enough that it isn't the same neighborhood lake. Worth the trip if water quality is the primary driver; less obvious if Clyde Pond is on the way to other plans.
The EPA water-quality grading combines clarity (Secchi depth), phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a measurements from state environmental sampling. A higher letter grade reflects measurably cleaner water on those indicators, not subjective beauty or access quality — a Grade A lake might have worse boat-launch facilities or shoreline access than a Grade C neighbor, so the ranking is one input alongside the rest of trip planning. See the methodology page for the full grading formula.
How this list is built
Every lake on LakeQuality has a calculated grade from EPA Water Quality Portal samples — secchi depth, total phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a measured against Metropolitan Council thresholds. To suggest cleaner alternatives, we filter lakes within 30 miles to those with a strictly higher numeric score, then rank by grade improvement with a small proximity tiebreak. Cross-state and limited-data lakes are excluded so the list stays locally relevant.