Miller Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric Miller Lake fails the cutoffs — a TSI of 76 and persistent algal pressure put it in the bottom tier. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

A TSI above 70 puts Miller Lake in hypereutrophic territory: visible blooms are common, and clarity rarely climbs even in early summer. Miller Lake is a shallow lake at 14 ft maximum depth, which means it warms quickly, mixes constantly, and amplifies nutrient inputs. The lake's 143 acres and 2.1 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within the 40 graded lakes of Carver County, Miller Lake sits at rank 32, near the bottom of the county list.

Zebra mussel presence at Miller Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. The fishery is bass-led, with 11 documented species across the lake's records. No formal public access is documented at Miller Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.