1
AHunting Run Reservoir
Spotsylvania County, Virginia · 24.6 mi from Mountain Run Lake
- +Two grade letters higher (C → A)
- ++4 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (10 vs 40 µg/L)
Cleaner Lakes Than Mountain Run Lake
2 higher-graded lakes within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.
Mountain Run Lake carries a Grade C (Fair) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 2 lakes hold a higher grade. Hunting Run Reservoir (Spotsylvania County, Grade A, 24.6 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.
Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
2
AHunting Run Reservior Lake
Spotsylvania County, Virginia · 24.9 mi from Mountain Run Lake
- +Two grade letters higher (C → A)
- ++5.6 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (10 vs 40 µg/L)
Reading the cohort
Only 2 lakes within a 30-mile radius score better than Mountain Run Lake's Grade C. 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 — Hunting Run Reservoir in Spotsylvania County — sits 24.6 miles from Mountain Run 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, Mountain Run 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.