Watonwan County Lake Quality

Watonwan County holds 14 monitored lakes. With a sample that small the county-level summary describes those specific waters, not necessarily every water body in the county. 4 of those lakes carry recent nutrient and algae readings. The county-level summary describes that subset, not every water body listed. For Watonwan 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. St James Lake has the lowest nutrient and algae readings in the county.