What are eutrophic lakes in Iowa?

53 eutrophic lakes in Iowa. High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity.

What does eutrophic mean?

High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity.

Eutrophic Lakes in Iowa

A eutrophic lake is a productive ecosystem with the trade-offs that come with productivity: more food at the base of the food web, more clarity reduction by mid-summer, more dissolved-oxygen variability near the bottom. 53 Iowa lakes register as eutrophic. Only 0% are deep — eutrophy correlates with shallowness, agricultural watersheds, and the kind of nutrient-input history that takes decades to shift.

Eutrophic lakes typically carry higher phosphorus and chlorophyll-a readings. The same nutrient richness that defines the trophic class shows up in those numbers.

#	Lake	County	Clarity	Depth	TSI
1	Storm Lake Max Depth	Buena Vista	1.7 ft	-	66
2	Arrowhead Lake	Sac	5.6 ft	-	51
3	Kent Park Lake	Johnson	4.8 ft	-	53
4	Mariposa Lake	Jasper	5.1 ft	-	53
5	Mormon Trail Lake	Adair	6.2 ft	-	51
6	Newell Pit Lake	Buena Vista	4.1 ft	-	56
7	Bob White Lake	Wayne	0.6 ft	-	74
8	Willow Lake	Harrison	4.8 ft	-	54
9	Poll Miller Park Lake	Lee	5.9 ft	-	51
10	Lake Minnewashta	Dickinson	2.8 ft	-	60
11	Upper Gar Lake	Dickinson	3.9 ft	-	58
12	Railroad Lake	Scott	5.1 ft	-	55
13	Big Spirit Lake	Dickinson	5.5 ft	-	58
14	Mitchell Lake	Black Hawk	2.3 ft	-	61
15	Lost Grove Lake	Scott	3.9 ft	-	56
16	Blue Grass Lake	Scott	4.5 ft	-	58
17	Oldham Lake	Monona	5.1 ft	-	55
18	Rathbun Lake	Appanoose	3 ft	-	60
19	Green Belt Lake	Black Hawk	2.4 ft	-	62
20	Lake Petocka	Polk	3.3 ft	-	57
21	Lake of the Hills	Scott	5.1 ft	-	58
22	Stolley Pit Lake	Clay	2.7 ft	-	60
23	Thomas Mitchell Lake	Polk	3.3 ft	-	61
24	Lost Island Lake	Palo Alto	2.6 ft	-	63
25	Nodaway Lake	Adair	2.8 ft	-	63
26	Loch Ayr Lake	Ringgold	2 ft	-	66
27	Clear Lake	Cerro Gordo	2.1 ft	-	63
28	Pleasant Creek Lake	Linn	3.6 ft	-	59
29	Hooper Pond Lake	Warren	2.5 ft	-	63
30	Lower Gar Lake	Dickinson	2.6 ft	-	63
31	Manteno Lake	Shelby	2.7 ft	-	67
32	Lake Cornelia	Wright	2.5 ft	-	60
33	Hawthorn Lake	Mahaska	2.4 ft	-	64
34	Yellow Smoke Lake	Crawford	3 ft	-	62
35	Easter Lake	Polk	2.9 ft	-	61
36	Three Mile Lake	Union	2.7 ft	-	62
37	Otter Creek Lake	Tama	1.3 ft	-	65
38	East Okoboji Lake	Dickinson	3.9 ft	-	61
39	Lake Macbride	Johnson	2.9 ft	-	63
40	West Lake Osceola	Clarke	2.2 ft	-	65
41	Spring Lake	Cherokee	2.5 ft	-	65
42	Cold Springs Lake	Cass	4.8 ft	-	57
43	Gustafson Lake	Buena Vista	2.3 ft	-	63
44	Binder Lake	Adams	3 ft	-	63
45	Central Park Lake	Jones	3.3 ft	-	61
46	Moorehead Lake	Ida	3.7 ft	-	62
47	Springbrook Lake	Guthrie	3 ft	-	62
48	Dog Creek Lake	O'Brien	3.4 ft	-	61
49	Mill Creek Lake	O'Brien	3 ft	-	63
50	Lake Meyer	Winneshiek	3.1 ft	-	61
51	Hickory Grove Lake	Story	3.6 ft	-	60
52	Snyder Bend Lake	Woodbury	2.1 ft	-	66
53	Fisher Lake	Black Hawk	2.6 ft	-	68

All eutrophic lakes →Minnesota version →Wisconsin version →Illinois version →Michigan version →Ohio version →Pennsylvania version →New York version →Missouri version →Indiana version →North Dakota version →South Dakota version →Florida version →Colorado version →North Carolina version →Vermont version →Texas version →Oregon version →Arkansas version →Oklahoma version →Kansas version →Nebraska version →Nevada version →Arizona version →Idaho version →Montana version →New Mexico version →Tennessee version →Alabama version →Virginia version →Kentucky version →Utah version →Washington version →Wyoming version →Georgia version →Massachusetts version →Ontario version →Québec version →Nova Scotia version →British Columbia version →Newfoundland and Labrador version →All Iowa lakes →

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.