The Lake is located in the Town of Clayton in the southeast comer of Polk County and just southwest of the Village of Clayton immediately adjacent to State Highway 63. Less than 100 miles from the Minneapolis-St. Paul metroplex, it is on route to northern Wisconsin where many city residents have summer or weekend destinations and because of this is experiencing increasing development pressure. Although the Lake Magnor area is considered rural, the intensity of the development in the area led to the creation of a Sanitary District. A sanitary sewer extension from the Village of Clayton was installed in 1994 to replace existing septic systems. This project is considered to have improved the water quality by reducing the rate of lake water quality degradation as a result of seepage from septic systems surrounding the lake. However, water quality concerns continue and the Association and local residents have exhibited considerable interest in evaluating these issues and finding long term solutions.

On 10 August 2005 cores were taken from five locations in Magnor Lake. The diatom community indicates there has been a significant increase in phosphorus levels in the lake during the last 100 years.

The Lake Magnor Lake Association will conduct a Lake/Watershed Management Master Plan Development Project for Magnor Lake in Polk County. Previous grant projects have been and are being conducted on this lake to collect the water quality and other data necessary to proceed with the development of a comprehensive lake management plan. Activities involved in this current Management Plan project include; review of all existing lake data, conduct of public meetings to collect additional lake use data and user input, conduct a watershed survey, conduct a lake sediment core study, conduct watershed and water quality/quantity modeling and evaluate development scenarios, evaluate available information and develop a draft Phase 1 LWMMP report.