Updated Jul 2026

Vermont Lake Water Quality

Water quality grades for 227 monitored lakes across 14 counties.

{{stateName}} has 227 graded lakes in our dataset, sampled across 14 counties, drawing on monitoring by {{agency}} plus federal and volunteer measurements. About 61% of {{stateName}}'s lakes pull an A — 139 top-bracket waters. That high A-share comes mostly from the cold, deep, kettle-formed lakes in the north of the state, which buffer themselves against nutrient inputs.

Mesotrophic is the dominant trophic class — a workable middle ground between the pristine oligotrophic deep lakes and the algal-pressured eutrophic shallow ones. Orange ranks highest on average county grade (A). Chittenden sits lowest. With only 14 counties in the state, the cross-county spread is narrower than the within-county spread for most lakes.

Rank	Lake	County	Grade	Clarity
1	Lake St. Catherine	Rutland	A	15.4 ft
2	Valley Lake	Washington	A	24.4 ft
3	Beebe Pond	Rutland	A	24.6 ft
4	Peacham Pond	Caledonia	A	15.6 ft
5	Berlin Pond	Washington	A	21.7 ft
6	Caspian Lake	Orleans	A	29.5 ft
7	Harveys Lake	Caledonia	A	21 ft
8	Maidstone Lake	Essex	A	28.5 ft
9	Sunrise Lake	Rutland	A	21.3 ft
10	Nichols Pond	Washington	A	23.3 ft
11	Rescue Lake	Windsor	A	15.1 ft
12	Seymour Lake	Orleans	A	24.6 ft
13	Sabin Pond	Washington	A	15.7 ft
14	Long Pond	Orleans	A	-
15	Curtis Pond	Washington	A	15.3 ft
16	Lake Fairlee	Orange	A	21.7 ft
17	Echo Lake	Orleans	A	23 ft
18	Echo Lake	Rutland	A	24.3 ft
19	Lake Morey	Orange	A	19.7 ft
20	Little Averill Pond	Essex	A	19.4 ft
21	Lake Willoughby	Orleans	A	28.2 ft
22	South Pond	Lamoille	A	15.4 ft
23	Lake Mirror	Washington	A	21.3 ft
24	Lake Dunmore	Addison	A	16.4 ft
25	Crystal Lake	Orleans	A	19.4 ft

Rank	Lake	County	Grade	Clarity
1	Jerome Lake	Addison	F	-
2	Shelburne Pond	Chittenden	F	1.8 ft
3	Knapp Brook Lake	Windsor	D	3.6 ft
4	Walker Pond	Orleans	C	-
5	Richville Pond	Addison	C	1.3 ft
6	Lake Carmi	Franklin	C	4.9 ft
7	Missisquoi Bay Lake	Franklin	C	5.6 ft
8	Gillett Pond	Chittenden	C	3.1 ft
9	Stoughton Pond	Windsor	C	9 ft
10	Lake Pinneo	Windsor	C	7.5 ft
11	Zack Woods Pond	Lamoille	C	9.8 ft
12	Big Mud Pond	Rutland	C	4.3 ft
13	Wolcott Pond	Lamoille	C	7.2 ft
14	Brownington Pond	Orleans	C	8.5 ft
15	Proper Pond	Franklin	C	5.9 ft
16	Pond Known by Vtdec As Goulds	Windsor	C	4.3 ft
17	Howe Pond	Bennington	C	5.7 ft
18	South Bay Lake	Orleans	C	4.4 ft
19	St. Albans Bay Lake	Franklin	C	6.6 ft
20	Star Lake	Rutland	B	-
21	Forester Pond	Windham	B	5.9 ft
22	Bourn Pond	Bennington	B	5.6 ft
23	Danby Pond	Rutland	B	2 ft
24	Rocky Pond	Rutland	B	4.4 ft
25	Forest Lake	Essex	B	4.1 ft

Vermont Lake Water Quality

Grade Distribution

Top-Graded Vermont Lakes

Lake St. Catherine

Valley Lake

Beebe Pond

Peacham Pond

Berlin Pond

Caspian Lake

Harveys Lake

Maidstone Lake

Sunrise Lake

Lake Map

Explore Vermont Lakes

Vermont reports, fishing & travel

Vermont Fishing & Recreation

Counties

Top 25 Cleanest Lakes

25 Lakes Needing Attention

Where to stay near Vermont