Palm Beach County Lake Quality

Palm Beach County's 20 graded lakes fall in the moderate-density bracket for Florida. The county-level average smooths over real differences — a single agricultural watershed near the southwest corner can pull the average down even if the rest of the county runs clean. The county average is C — the middle of the rubric, with one or two lakes pulling the average up or down depending on year.

Most of the county's monitored lakes are shallow — under 50 feet — which means wind keeps the water column mixed all summer and sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the surface layer whenever the bottom is disturbed. Palm Beach-Westwood Lake (B) is the cleanest in the county.