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History of Lake Livingston |
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| Source: Trinity River Authority. Located in a serene East Texas Piney Woods setting, Lake Livingston was created for water supply purposes. Built, owner and operated by the Trinity River Authority of Texas (TRA) under contract with the City of Houston, Lake Livingston is the largest lake constructed for water supply purposes located totally within the State of Texas. Construction of the lake was financed through the sale of revenue bonds to be redeemed with income derived from the sale of water. Water stored in the lake is used to supply industrial, municipal, and agricultural needs in the lower Trinity River Basin and the Houston/Galveston metropolitan area. Its significance in the face of the extraordinary growth experienced by this region of the Upper Texas Gulf Coast is tremendous. Completed by TRA in 1969 at a cost of $83,996,957, Lake Livingston covers approximately 83,000 surface acres and impounds 1,750,000 acre-feet of water at its normal pool elevation of 131 feet above mean sea level. (One acre-foot of water is equal to one foot of water covering one acre of land or 325,850 gallons.) The average depth of the lake is 23 feet with a maximum depth of 90 feet. Lake Livingston has more than 450 miles of shoreline extending into San Jacinto, Polk, Walker and Trinity Counties, A wide range of public and commercial recreation facilities including full service marinas, camping and motel accommodations are located along the shoreline. The Livingston Dam, constructed across the Trinity River approximately seven miles southwest of the city of Livingston, is 2 1/2 miles in length and has an average height of 55 feet. The average base width of the Dam’s earthen embankment is 310 feet wide. The spillway is designed and constructed to pass flows of three times the maximum-recorded flow of the river at this site. Besides being a popular camping and vacation area, Lake Livingston is also known as one of the best fishing lake in Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has stocked the lake with millions of striped bass and Florida bass fingerlings, These fish, along with native species of largemouth black bass, white bass, crappie, catfish and bream are abundant in lake Livingston, The combined result of this productive environment and continuous stocking program are full stringers and many happy fishermen, If a big one gets away from you in lake Livingston, there are always plenty more to take their place. History of the Trinity RiverSource: Trinity River Authority The Trinity River was discovered in 1690 by General Alonzo de Leon while searching for an outpost, St. Louis. General de Leon discovered a river at a point near present day Midway, Texas on May 19, 1690 and named the river La Santisima de la Trinidad (which means in Spanish ‘The Most Holy Trinity’). It was a customer of the time to name prominent landmarks for religious feasts or holy days. The Trinity was discovered two days before the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. General de Leon would be surprised to know the river and its basin he discovered in 1690 would, almost 300 years later, contain more than 20% of the State’s population of more than 21,000,000 and contain a river basin area larger than nine of the states within the United States. The Trinity River is 715 miles long and the Trinity River basin tis the largest river basin in Texas that begins and ends within the state. This important tributary provides water to over half of the population of Texas and serves two major population centers: Dallas/Fort Worth in the north and Houston to the south. In addition, it is important to recognize that both major population centers drain into the Galveston Bay and estuary system, one of the most productive ecosystems and commercial fisheries in the United States. It has its beginning in four forks - the East Fork in Grayson County, the Elm Fork in Montague County, the West Fork in Archer County and the Clear Fork in Parker County. The Clear and Elm Forks join the West Fork in Fort Worth and Dallas respectively. The East Fork joins the Trinity on the border of Ellis and Kaufman Counties just below Dallas County. From there, it flows into Trinity Bay - the northernmost [art of Galveston Bay near Anahuac. The Trinity River basin lies in eastern Texas and has a total length of 360 miles. The total area drained by the Trinity River and its tributaries is 17,969 square miles, or approximately six percent of the state’s land area. Dallas and Fort Worth, which were founded on the bands of the Trinity River in the mid-1800’s, totally dominate the upper Trinity River basin. The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex is the largest inland population center in the United States and always had a profound impact of water quality. |
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