What is the cleanest lake near Moose Lake?

Walker Brook Lake in Clearwater County holds a Grade A water quality score and is null miles from Moose Lake.

Why is Moose Lake not Grade A?

Moose Lake holds Grade D, with about 3.8 ft of water clarity and 58.5 µg/L of phosphorus. The letter is nutrients and algae against that lake’s EPA ecoregion classes. Clarity is shown separately. Cleaner alternatives nearby have a strictly higher nutrient-and-algae score.

Are these recommendations based on real data?

Yes. Every grade is calculated from EPA Water Quality Portal samples for the lake. Recommendations are limited to lakes within 30 miles of Moose Lake in Minnesota, with strictly higher numeric grade scores and sufficient monitoring data.

Cleaner Lakes Than Moose Lake, Top 5 Within 30 Miles

Cleaner Lakes Than Moose Lake

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

Moose Lake carries a Grade D (Nutrient-rich) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 5 lakes hold a higher grade. Walker Brook Lake (Clearwater County, Grade A, null mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.

Walker Brook Lake

Clearwater County, Minnesota · mi from Moose Lake

+Two grade letters higher (D → A)
++7.3 ft water clarity
+Lower phosphorus (20 vs 58.5 µg/L)

Grant Lake

Beltrami County, Minnesota · mi from Moose Lake

+Two grade letters higher (D → A)
++6.9 ft water clarity
+Lower phosphorus (11.5 vs 58.5 µg/L)

Buzzle Lake

Beltrami County, Minnesota · mi from Moose Lake

+Two grade letters higher (D → A)
++13.3 ft water clarity
+Lower phosphorus (8.5 vs 58.5 µg/L)

Lomond Lake

Clearwater County, Minnesota · mi from Moose Lake

+Two grade letters higher (D → A)
++6.3 ft water clarity
+Lower phosphorus (20.5 vs 58.5 µg/L)

Minerva Lake

Clearwater County, Minnesota · mi from Moose Lake

+Higher grade (D → C)
++3.2 ft water clarity
+Lower phosphorus (26 vs 58.5 µg/L)

Reading the cohort

5 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Moose Lake in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many higher-grade neighbors close by, Moose 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 — Walker Brook Lake in Clearwater County, Grade A — sits miles from Moose 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 Walker Brook 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

Rated lakes on LakeQuality have a letter from EPA Water Quality Portal samples — nutrients and algae measured against EPA National Lakes Assessment ecoregion classes. Secchi is shown, not scored. 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.