1
CCity Pond
Anson County, North Carolina · 24.5 mi from Lake Lee
- +Two grade letters higher (F → C)
- +Lower phosphorus (50 vs 210 µg/L)
Cleaner Lakes Than Lake Lee
2 higher-graded lakes within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.
Lake Lee carries a Grade F (Very Poor) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 2 lakes hold a higher grade. City Pond (Anson County, Grade C, 24.5 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.
Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
2
DLake Twitty
Union County, North Carolina · 5.5 mi from Lake Lee
- +Higher grade (F → D)
- +Lower phosphorus (80 vs 210 µg/L)
Reading the cohort
Only 2 lakes within a 30-mile radius score better than Lake Lee's Grade F. 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.
The nearest cleaner alternative — City Pond in Anson County — sits 24.5 miles from Lake Lee, putting it firmly in "destination trip" rather than "neighborhood swap" range. The water-quality gap has to be the deciding factor; for a casual outing, Lake Lee is the practical choice and the cleaner options are reserved for purpose-specific visits.
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.