Champlin Mill Pond

Champlin Mill Pond pulls a D on the LakeGrade rubric — phosphorus loading and limited clarity hold it below the Minnesota average. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. A maximum depth of just 11 ft means sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the water column whenever wind stirs the bottom — a classic shallow-lake dynamic. At 37 acres, Champlin Mill Pond sits below the Minnesota median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Champlin Mill Pond sits at rank 61 of 95 in Hennepin County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Champlin Mill Pond — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Champlin Mill Pond, one of 14 fish species on record for the lake. The lake lacks a documented public access point, so visitor use is limited. Monitoring depth is thin here: the LakeGrade rubric is applied to a small number of sample years, and the grade will be revised as more data accumulates.