Keller Lake

Keller Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. A maximum depth of just 7 ft means sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the water column whenever wind stirs the bottom — a classic shallow-lake dynamic. Keller Lake is small — 55 acres alongside 1.2 miles of shoreline — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within Dakota County's 36 graded lakes, Keller Lake ranks 19 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Eurasian watermilfoil is established at Keller Lake, which can dampen recreational access and pressure the native plant community. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 9, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. 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.