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Cleaner Lakes Than Johnson Lake

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

Johnson Lake carries a Grade D (Poor) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 5 lakes hold a higher grade. East Twin Lake (St. Louis County, Grade A, null mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
1
A

East Twin Lake

St. Louis County, Minnesota · mi from Johnson Lake
  • +Two grade letters higher (D → A)
  • ++10.1 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (7 vs 31.5 µg/L)
2
B

Bear Island Lake

St. Louis County, Minnesota · mi from Johnson Lake
  • +Two grade letters higher (D → B)
  • ++4 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (16.5 vs 31.5 µg/L)
3
B

Wolf Lake

St. Louis County, Minnesota · mi from Johnson Lake
  • +Two grade letters higher (D → B)
  • ++6 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (13 vs 31.5 µg/L)
4
C

One Pine Lake

St. Louis County, Minnesota · mi from Johnson Lake
  • +Higher grade (D → C)
  • ++1.5 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (25 vs 31.5 µg/L)
5
C

Perch Lake

St. Louis County, Minnesota · mi from Johnson Lake
  • +Higher grade (D → C)
  • ++3.6 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (23 vs 31.5 µg/L)

Reading the cohort

5 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Johnson Lake in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many higher-grade neighbors close by, Johnson 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 Minnesota weekend.

The closest cleaner alternative — East Twin Lake in St. Louis County, Grade A — sits miles from Johnson 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 East Twin Lake is mostly a habit change rather than a logistics change.

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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