What is the cleanest lake near Pine Tree Lake?

White Bear Lake in Washington County holds a Grade A water quality score and is null miles from Pine Tree Lake.

Why is Pine Tree Lake not Grade A?

Pine Tree Lake holds Grade B, with about 8.5 ft of water clarity and 17 µg/L of phosphorus. The grade reflects measured water quality against Metropolitan Council thresholds. Cleaner alternatives nearby score higher on clarity, phosphorus, or chlorophyll-a.

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 Pine Tree Lake in Minnesota, with strictly higher numeric grade scores and sufficient monitoring data.

Cleaner Lakes Than Pine Tree Lake, Top 1 Within 30 Miles, LakeQuality

Cleaner Lakes Than Pine Tree Lake

1 higher-graded lake within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.

Pine Tree Lake carries a Grade B (Good) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 1 lake holds a higher grade. White Bear Lake (Washington County, Grade A, null mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.

White Bear Lake

Washington County, Minnesota · mi from Pine Tree Lake

+Higher grade (B → A)
++5.9 ft water clarity

Reading the cohort

Just one nearby water body scores higher than Pine Tree Lake on the EPA metrics within a 30-mile radius. The single cleaner option (below) is the practical alternative; beyond that, the next-cleanest lakes sit farther out and warrant a longer drive only if the water-quality difference is the deciding factor.

The closest cleaner alternative — White Bear Lake in Washington County, Grade A — sits miles from Pine Tree 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 White Bear 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.