Coles County Lake Quality

Coles County has 3 monitored lakes — a thin enough sample that one or two stressed lakes can move the county average noticeably. Use the per-lake pages below for what actually matters. 2 of those lakes carry recent nutrient and algae readings. The county-level summary describes that subset, not every water body listed. The monitored lakes here are mostly shallow, productive basins where summer algae is common; each lake page shows its own readings beside the EPA condition class.

The county's lakes lean shallow, which makes the readings sensitive to wind, sediment-resuspension, and any nutrient inputs from the watershed. The cleanest measured lake is Paradise Lake.