Lake Palestine | |
---|---|
Location | Texas, United States |
Coordinates | 32°11′05″N95°28′49″W / 32.184647°N 95.480289°W |
Primary inflows | Neches River |
Basin countries | United States |
Max. length | 18 mi (29 km) |
Surface area | 25,560 acres (103.4 km2) |
Average depth | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
Max. depth | 58 ft (18 m) |
Shore length1 | 135 mi (217 km) |
Surface elevation | 345 ft (105 m): [1] |
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. |
Lake Palestine is a freshwater reservoir in northeast Texas, created for industrial, municipal, and recreational purposes.
The reservoir was formed by the construction of the 5720-foot-long Blackburn Crossing Dam on the Neches River. [2] The project was started in 1960 and completed on June 13, 1962. The resulting lake is 18 miles long, stretching northwest to southeast, with 135 miles of shoreline. The widest part of the lake is 4 miles across. [3] The lake is primarily fed by waters from the Neches River and Kickapoo Creek.
The lake is located in parts of four counties: Anderson, Cherokee, Henderson, and Smith.
According to the Texas Water Development Board 2012 Survey, the storage capacity of Lake Palestine is 367,312 acre-feet with a surface area of 23,112 acres at the conservation pool elevation of 345 feet above mean sea level. The drainage area above the dam is approximately 839 square miles. [4]
The Tarrant Regional Water District and the City of Dallas Water Utilities partnered to build a $2.3 billion pipeline which extends 150 miles from Lake Palestine to Lake Benbrook. The project began in 2014 and is expected to be completed in phases between 2018 and 2030. Area businesses expressed alarm at the possibility that cities could pump the lake dry at any time, however officials stated that lake level declines would be 50 percent from evaporation and 50 percent pumped water, in line with management at other lakes. [5]
The lake offers an array of freshwater fish species including bass, crappie and catfish.
The Sabine River is a 360-mile (580 km) long river in the Southern U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana, From the 32nd parallel north and downstream, it serves as part of the boundary between the two states and empties into Sabine Lake, an estuary of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Neches River begins in Van Zandt County west of Rhine Lake and flows for 416 miles (669 km) through the piney woods of east Texas, defining the boundaries of 14 counties on its way to its mouth on Sabine Lake near the Rainbow Bridge. Two major reservoirs, Lake Palestine and B. A. Steinhagen Reservoir are located on the Neches. The Angelina River is a major tributary with its confluence at the north of Lake B. A. Steinhagen. Tributaries to the south include Village Creek and Pine Island Bayou, draining much of the Big Thicket region, both joining the Neches a few miles north of Beaumont. Towns and cities located along the river including Tyler, Lufkin, and Silsbee, although significant portions of the Neches River are undeveloped and flow through protected natural lands. In contrast, the lower 40 miles of the river are a major shipping channel, highly industrialized, with a number of cities and towns concentrated in the area including Beaumont, Vidor, Port Neches, Nederland, Groves, and Port Arthur.
Palestine is a city in and the seat of Anderson County in the U.S. state of Texas. It was named after Palestine, Illinois, by preacher Daniel Parker, who had migrated from that town. It is also contested that Micham Main named Palestine after his hometown, also Palestine, Illinois, when he and his family arrived here along with the Parker family and several others.
The Lower Neches Valley Authority was established in 1933 by the state legislature as a district to store, control, conserve, and utilize the water of the lower Neches River valley in Texas. The LNVA, the second river district created by the state of Texas, is currently one of 23 river districts in the state. It includes all of Jefferson, Hardin, and Tyler counties and parts of Jasper, Liberty, and Chambers counties.
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Sam Rayburn Reservoir is a reservoir in the United States in Deep East Texas, 70 miles (110 km) north of Beaumont. The reservoir is fed by the Angelina River, the major tributary of the Neches River. The Reservoir is upstream of the Big Thicket National Preserve.
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Lake Tyler (West) is a man-made public water reservoir located south-east of Tyler, Texas, in eastern Smith County. While named after the town of Tyler (pop. 104,789), Lake Tyler is closer to the smaller cities of Whitehouse (pop. 7660) and Arp (pop. 970). Lake Tyler resides in the northern Neches River watershed, and was formed after the completion of Whitehouse Dam on Prairie Creek in 1949. The design engineer of the dam was T.C. Forrest (Now Forrest and Cotton, Inc.), and the earthfill dam was constructed to be 4,708 feet long, standing at a maximum height of 50 feet, with a width of 20 feet and a drainage area of 48 square miles, according to the Texas Water Development Board. Lake Tyler is found in the Piney Woods ecoregion of eastern Texas, a temperate coniferous forest hosting a great amount of biodiversity. Just to the east of the lake lies Lake Tyler East, created after the completion of Mud Creek Dam in early 1967. Just over a year later, in May 1968, the two lakes were connected by a canal to combine the water supply. Together, the two lakes have a combined safe yield of over 30 million gallons per day, and combine to encompass an approximate surface area of 4,714 acres, all maintained and operated by the city of Tyler to provide a source of public water to several surrounding communities.
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