West Virginia Lake Water Quality

Across West Virginia, 6 lakes carry an active water-quality grade spread over 6 counties. The underlying measurements come from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, alongside federal programs and volunteer monitoring networks. Only about 0% of West Virginia'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 6 counties in the state, the cross-county spread is narrower than the within-county spread for most lakes.