1
BJohns W Lake
Orange County, Florida · 2.7 mi from Sla Lake
- +Two grade letters higher (D → B)
- ++6.9 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (9 vs 34 µg/L)
Cleaner Lakes Than Sla Lake
5 higher-graded lakes within 30 miles, ranked by grade improvement and proximity.
Sla Lake carries a Grade D (Poor) water quality score. Within 30 miles, 5 lakes hold a higher grade. Johns W Lake (Orange County, Grade B, 2.7 mi away) is the closest meaningful upgrade.
Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated
2
BJohns Lake
Orange County, Florida · 2.4 mi from Sla Lake
- +Two grade letters higher (D → B)
- ++3.9 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (23 vs 34 µg/L)
3
COrange-John'S Lake
Lake County, Florida · 2.2 mi from Sla Lake
- +Higher grade (D → C)
- ++3.5 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (19.5 vs 34 µg/L)
4
CJohnslke Lake
Orange County, Florida · 2.6 mi from Sla Lake
- +Higher grade (D → C)
- ++5.3 ft water clarity
5
CJohns E Lake
Orange County, Florida · 2.7 mi from Sla Lake
- +Higher grade (D → C)
- ++2.6 ft water clarity
- +Lower phosphorus (18.5 vs 34 µg/L)
Reading the cohort
5 cleaner lakes sit within 30 miles of Sla Lake in the EPA water-quality dataset. With that many higher-grade neighbors close by, Sla 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 Florida weekend.
The closest cleaner alternative — Johns W Lake in Orange County, Grade B — sits 2.7 miles from Sla 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 Johns W 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.