Allegan County Lake Quality

Allegan County has 52 monitored lakes, enough that within-county variation matters as much as the county average. Some are deep glacial basins, others are shallow agricultural-watershed waters, and the measurements reflect that mix. 4 of those lakes carry recent nutrient and algae readings. The county-level summary describes that subset, not every water body listed. Most monitored lakes in Allegan County carry favourable nutrient and algae readings for Michigan.

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. Osterhout Lake has the lowest nutrient and algae readings in the county.