Ellsworth County Lake Quality

Ellsworth County has 1 monitored lake — 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. Every one of those lake carries an A–F grade, so the county-level summary covers the full set rather than a monitored subset. Ellsworth County averages to a C. The distribution behind that average matters more than the letter: a few stressed lakes versus many decent ones can produce the same average as the inverse.

The county's lakes lean shallow, which makes the grades sensitive to wind, sediment-resuspension, and any nutrient inputs from the watershed. The cleanest lake on the books is Kanopolis Lake (C); the most-stressed is Kanopolis Lake (C).