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Cleaner Lakes Than Little Cedar Lake

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

Little Cedar Lake carries a Grade B (Good) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 5 lakes hold a higher grade. Bamoos Lake (Thunder Bay District County, Grade A, 25.1 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
1
A

Bamoos Lake

Thunder Bay District County, Ontario · 25.1 mi from Little Cedar Lake
  • +Higher grade (B → A)
  • ++10.2 ft water clarity
2
A

White Lake

Thunder Bay District County, Ontario · 12.8 mi from Little Cedar Lake
  • +Higher grade (B → A)
  • ++5 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (8.2 vs 16.4 µg/L)
3
A

North Mccrea Lake

Thunder Bay District County, Ontario · 26.2 mi from Little Cedar Lake
  • +Higher grade (B → A)
  • ++5.3 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (5.7 vs 16.4 µg/L)
4
B

Kwinkwaga Lake

Thunder Bay District County, Ontario · 11.2 mi from Little Cedar Lake
  • +Higher overall water quality score
  • ++1.7 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (6.6 vs 16.4 µg/L)
5
B

One Island Lake

Thunder Bay District County, Ontario · 23.7 mi from Little Cedar Lake
  • +Higher overall water quality score
  • ++1.2 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (4.2 vs 16.4 µg/L)

Reading the cohort

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

The nearest cleaner alternative — Bamoos Lake in Thunder Bay District County — sits 25.1 miles from Little Cedar Lake, 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, Little Cedar Lake 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.

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