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LakeQuality
Late afternoon sun over Slim Lake, scattering a bright path across wind-textured water

Oligotrophic Lakes in Kentucky

4 oligotrophic lakes in Kentucky. Low nutrients, clear water, excellent for swimming.

Oligotrophic lakes are the clear, cold, nutrient-poor end of the trophic scale. The Carlson Trophic State Index measures this as TSI below 40 — water transparent enough to see 15+ feet down, total phosphorus under 12 µg/L, chlorophyll-a barely registering. Across Kentucky, 4 lakes register as oligotrophic — 0% of them break 50 feet of depth, which is the structural condition that underwrites the trophic class. Without depth and a low-nutrient watershed, oligotrophy is hard to sustain.

Oligotrophic lakes almost always carry the lowest phosphorus and chlorophyll-a readings on record, since the same low-nutrient conditions produce both the trophic class and the clear water.

#LakeCountyClarityDepthTSI
1Fishtrap LakePike--37
2Freeman LakeHardin--37
3Owsley Fork ReservoirMadison--37
4Campton LakeWolfe--37
All oligotrophic lakes →Minnesota version →Wisconsin version →Illinois version →Michigan version →Iowa 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 →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 Kentucky lakes →

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.