1
AMalletts Bay Lake
Chittenden County, Vermont · 6.3 mi from Colchester Pond
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++4.9 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (9.2 vs 17.2 µg/L)
Cleaner Lakes Than Colchester Pond
3 higher-graded lakes within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.
Colchester Pond carries a Grade B (Good) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 3 lakes hold a higher grade. Malletts Bay Lake (Chittenden County, Grade A, 6.3 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.
Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
2
ABurlington Bay Lake
Chittenden County, Vermont · 7.7 mi from Colchester Pond
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++5.9 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (9.4 vs 17.2 µg/L)
3
AShelburne Bay Lake
Chittenden County, Vermont · 10.5 mi from Colchester Pond
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++5.2 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (9.1 vs 17.2 µg/L)
Reading the cohort
Only 3 lakes within a 30-mile radius score better than Colchester 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.
Malletts Bay Lake (Chittenden County, Grade A) is the closest cleaner option at 6.3 miles from Colchester 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 Colchester 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.