1
ALake Greenwood
Washington County, Vermont · 7 mi from Lake Elmore
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++8.2 ft water clarity
Cleaner Lakes Than Lake Elmore
4 higher-graded lakes within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.
Lake Elmore carries a Grade B (Good) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 4 lakes hold a higher grade. Lake Greenwood (Washington County, Grade A, 7 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.
Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
2
AValley Lake
Washington County, Vermont · 7.1 mi from Lake Elmore
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++14.6 ft water clarity
3
AShadow Pond
Washington County, Vermont · 7.2 mi from Lake Elmore
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++18.1 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (9.4 vs 15.9 µg/L)
4
AGreen River Reservoir
Lamoille County, Vermont · 6.5 mi from Lake Elmore
- +Higher grade (B → A)
- ++3.3 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (7.4 vs 15.9 µg/L)
Reading the cohort
4 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Lake Elmore in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many higher-grade neighbors close by, Lake Elmore's Grade B 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 Vermont weekend.
Lake Greenwood (Washington County, Grade A) is the closest cleaner option at 7 miles from Lake Elmore — 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 Lake Elmore 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.