Lake Okeechobee has just been named the dirtiest lake in America. A new study from Lake.com, which pulled federal water quality data, found the massive Florida lake ranked worst among the country's 100 largest. Researchers flagged Lake O's cloudy water with turbidity readings of 34.36 NTU, along with phosphorus levels that feed algae growth and traces of lead, a contaminant that has no safe level. Gil Smart, executive director of Vote Water, says the news surprised him.
" It's obvious that Lake Okeechobee has and has had pollution problems. I might not have expected it to be to this extent, but it just underscores the need to take action to do something about it," he said.
The analysis looked at data collected by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council between 2020 and mid-2025. Scientists compared eight indicators of water health, including oxygen, ammonia, lead, phosphorus, sulfates, dissolved solids, turbidity, and pH balance. Gil said that the issue at Lake O is complicated.
"One of the big issues with the lake, and one of the reasons it's so hard to get the lake cleaned up, is the state's basin management action plans, which are basically supposed to provide a roadmap to reducing nutrient pollution coming into the lake. We're missing the target the FDEP has established in terms of reducing phosphorus, in terms of reducing nitrogen," he said. "We're just not hitting the levels of reductions that were supposed to be hit, and so what that means is much, much more of these pollutants is coming into the lake as a result than should be, and it's just making the existing problem worse," he said.
However, officials who represent the lake have been looking at ways to mitigate the issue.
"Lake Okeechobee faces sort of a whole bunch of problems. There's no easy solution. There's certainly gonna be no quick solution, and there's certainly gonna be no cheap solution. One that's being talked about now is the possibility of dredging the lake. That's a massive, massive project and would be extraordinarily expensive. It would take a tremendous amount of time just to do it. But at a recent meeting of the County Coalition for Responsible Management of Lake O — it's a group of elected officials representing the counties that surround the lake — they were talking about this, and they were saying, look, this needs to happen, dredging of Lake O needs to happen," he said.
Gil said that he hopes the study encourages more people to get involved.
" Well, it brings awareness to the issue. You know, Lake Okeechobee has been described as the beating heart of the Everglades, and it's important. The health of the lake is important, and it's necessary. And the more people know about the problems of the lake, the more public pressure can be put on elected officials who are ultimately gonna have to pull the trigger on some of these solutions. Only 46 lakes had enough recent data to make the list, and Okeechobee landed at the bottom, underscoring longstanding concerns about pollution in Florida's largest freshwater lake," he said.
The South Florida Water Management District called the report misleading. In a statement provided to WQCS, the agency said claims about high lead levels in Lake Okeechobee are flat-out wrong — noting that all samples meet EPA water quality standards and there have been no violations. Officials also argued the study’s methodology oversimplifies a complex system, ignoring years of scientific monitoring and major restoration projects. They pointed to ongoing efforts like stormwater treatment areas, new reservoirs, and large-scale vegetation plantings that are improving water quality and habitat across the lake.
"Lake Okeechobee faces challenges, particularly with excess nutrients, but the State of Florida and its partners are making unprecedented progress in restoration efforts. Claims about high lead levels simply do not reflect the actual science or the tremendous work underway to improve the lake’s health," the statement reads.
The statement also notes other accomplishments, including:
· Nutrient reductions now total over 1.8 million lbs. of nitrogen and 770,000 lbs. of phosphorous annually.
· South Florida’s water storage capacity has tripled to 176 billion gallons.
· The C-44 reservoir is complete on the east coast, the C-43 reservoir is complete on the west coast, and the EAA Reservoir, the "crown jewel" of Everglades restoration, is projected to be finished by 2029.
Only 46 lakes had enough recent data to make the list, and Okeechobee's landed at the bottom, underscoring longstanding concerns about pollution and Florida's largest freshwater lake.