Nelson County Lake Quality

Nelson County's 37 monitored lakes fall in the moderate-density bracket for North Dakota. The county-level average smooths over real differences — a single agricultural watershed near the southwest corner can pull the average down even if the rest of the county runs clean. 4 of those lakes carry an A–F grade. The county-level summary describes that subset, not every water body listed. The county average is F — the most-stressed bracket in our rubric. Most monitored lakes here show persistent nutrient loading and algal pressure.

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 Lake Laretta (D); the most-stressed is Western Stump Lake (F).