Harney County Lake Quality

Harney County in Oregon carries 70 monitored lakes — one of the lake-richer counties in our dataset. Coverage that dense usually reflects active lake-association sampling alongside state-agency monitoring. 1 of those lake carry recent nutrient and algae readings. The county-level summary describes that subset, not every water body listed. The monitored lakes here are mostly shallow, productive basins where summer algae is common; each lake page shows its own readings beside the EPA condition class.

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