Georgia Lake Water Quality

37 of the 693 Georgia lakes in this index carry a recent clarity, phosphorus or algae reading, spread over 143 counties. Those readings come from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, alongside federal programs and volunteer monitoring networks. The rest are listed for their size, depth and location, with no recent nutrient or algae sampling behind them. Most measured Georgia lakes are productive, often shallow, and frequently algal in late summer; each lake page shows its own phosphorus and chlorophyll-a readings.

Lake Hartwell is the largest lake in this index at about 55,950 acres, one of 41 here that clear 500 acres. The rest run smaller, and small and shallow is where nutrient loading shows up first, because there is less water to dilute it and the bottom sediment stays within reach of the sun. Eutrophic conditions dominate the measured set: nutrient-loaded, productive, with algal pressure that shows up most years in late summer. These lakes tend to be shallow, in agricultural watersheds, and over-warmed by the time July ends. The county with the lowest nutrient and algae readings on average is Dougherty. The gap between counties is large enough that a single figure for Georgia lake water quality hides real local variation.