What is the cleanest lake near Rice Lake?

Bush Lake in Hennepin County holds a Grade A water quality score and is null miles from Rice Lake.

Why is Rice Lake not Grade A?

Rice Lake holds Grade F, with about 1.7 ft of water clarity and 647 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 Rice Lake in Minnesota, with strictly higher numeric grade scores and sufficient monitoring data.

Cleaner Lakes Than Rice Lake, Top 4 Within 30 Miles, LakeQuality

Cleaner Lakes Than Rice Lake

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

Rice Lake carries a Grade F (Very Poor) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 4 lakes hold a higher grade. Bush Lake (Hennepin County, Grade A, null mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.

Bush Lake

Hennepin County, Minnesota · mi from Rice Lake

+Two grade letters higher (F → A)
++11.3 ft water clarity
+Lower phosphorus (13.5 vs 647 µg/L)

Deans Lake

Scott County, Minnesota · mi from Rice Lake

+Two grade letters higher (F → B)
+Lower phosphorus (37 vs 647 µg/L)

Hyland Lake

Hennepin County, Minnesota · mi from Rice Lake

+Two grade letters higher (F → C)
++3.2 ft water clarity
+Lower phosphorus (37.3 vs 647 µg/L)

Blue Lake

Scott County, Minnesota · mi from Rice Lake

+Higher grade (F → D)
+Lower phosphorus (109.5 vs 647 µg/L)

Reading the cohort

4 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Rice Lake in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many higher-grade neighbors close by, Rice Lake'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 Minnesota weekend.

The closest cleaner alternative — Bush Lake in Hennepin County, Grade A — sits miles from Rice 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 Bush 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.