Rhode Island Lake Water Quality

Rhode Island has 5 graded lakes in our dataset, sampled across 2 counties, drawing on monitoring by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management plus federal and volunteer measurements. Only about 0% of Rhode Island's lakes pull an A grade — the smaller, agricultural-watershed lakes that dominate the dataset tend to carry persistent nutrient loads. 0% of lakes fall in the D or F brackets.

The state's dominant trophic class is oligotrophic: clear, nutrient-poor, slow-growing. These lakes are also the most sensitive to disturbance — the same volume that buffers them against nutrients also slows recovery if those nutrients arrive in quantity. a leading county ranks highest on average county grade (—). a struggling county sits lowest. With only 2 counties in the state, the cross-county spread is narrower than the within-county spread for most lakes.