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Cleaner Lakes Than Little Orange Lake South Shore

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

Little Orange Lake South Shore carries a Grade F (Very Poor) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 5 lakes hold a higher grade. Putnam-Annie Lake (Putnam County, Grade A, 3.4 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
1
A

Putnam-Annie Lake

Putnam County, Florida · 3.4 mi from Little Orange Lake South Shore
  • +Two grade letters higher (F → A)
  • ++8.3 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (10.5 vs 170 µg/L)
2
C

Alachua-Moss Lake

Putnam County, Florida · 0.8 mi from Little Orange Lake South Shore
  • +Two grade letters higher (F → C)
  • +Lower phosphorus (19.5 vs 170 µg/L)
3
C

Putnam-Star Lake

Putnam County, Florida · 3.3 mi from Little Orange Lake South Shore
  • +Two grade letters higher (F → C)
  • ++1.3 ft water clarity
  • +Lower phosphorus (24 vs 170 µg/L)
4
C

Strlk Lake

Putnam County, Florida · 3.4 mi from Little Orange Lake South Shore
  • +Two grade letters higher (F → C)
  • +Lower phosphorus (24 vs 170 µg/L)
5
D

Alachua-Jeffords Lake

Alachua County, Florida · 2.4 mi from Little Orange Lake South Shore
  • +Higher grade (F → D)
  • +Lower phosphorus (48 vs 170 µg/L)

Reading the cohort

5 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Little Orange Lake South Shore in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many higher-grade neighbors close by, Little Orange Lake South Shore's Grade F 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 Florida weekend.

The closest cleaner alternative — Putnam-Annie Lake in Putnam County, Grade A — sits 3.4 miles from Little Orange Lake South Shore. 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 Putnam-Annie 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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