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Cleaner Lakes Than Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake

5 higher-graded lakes within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.

Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake carries a Grade D (Poor) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 5 lakes hold a higher grade. Forest Lake (Adair County, Grade B, 8.1 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
1
B

Forest Lake

Adair County, Missouri · 8.1 mi from Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake
  • +Two grade letters higher (D → B)
  • ++1.5 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (18 vs 31.5 µg/L)
2
C

Hazel Creek Lk. Lake

Adair County, Missouri · 1.6 mi from Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake
  • +Higher grade (D → C)
  • +Lower phosphorus (24.5 vs 31.5 µg/L)
3
B

Milan Lake North

Sullivan County, Missouri · 27 mi from Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake
  • +Two grade letters higher (D → B)
4
C

Forest Lake Se Branch

Adair County, Missouri · 7.8 mi from Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake
  • +Higher grade (D → C)
  • +Lower phosphorus (25 vs 31.5 µg/L)
5
C

Hazel Creek Lk. Lake

Adair County, Missouri · 1.8 mi from Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake
  • +Higher grade (D → C)
  • +Lower phosphorus (22 vs 31.5 µg/L)

Reading the cohort

5 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many higher-grade neighbors close by, Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake's Grade D reflects 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 Missouri weekend.

Forest Lake (Adair County, Grade B) is the closest cleaner option at 8.1 miles from Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake — 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 Hazel Creek Lk. East Fork Lake 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.

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