Swift County Lake Quality

There are 19 monitored lakes in Swift County. The mix is varied enough that the county-level average tells you the broad strokes, not the choose-this-cabin specifics. 1 of those lake carry recent nutrient and algae readings. The county-level summary describes that subset, not every water body listed. For Swift County the spread behind the average matters more than the average itself: a few nutrient-rich lakes among many clear ones produce the same figure as the inverse.

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