July 2016 Update:


Below are the pumping, water releases and evaporation for July 2016.


Evaporation for July = 11.67 inches


Rainfall Recorded at the SRA Headquarters for July = 1.59 inches.


Water Released for July by the SRA for Downstream Communities = 927.7 acre-feet or about 0.43 inches off the lake.


Water Pumped by Dallas for July = 6,389.1 acre-feet or about 2.95 inches off the lake.


Water Released by the SRA for July through the Tainter Flood Gates = 0.0 acre-feet.


So, the total water removed from the lake for July = About 15.05 inches or about 1.25 feet with most of that coming from evaporation.



2016 Totals through July:


Evaporation for 2016 = 44.17 inches or about 3.68 feet, which equals about 95,680 acre-feet.


Rainfall Recorded at the SRA Headquarters for 2016 = 28.76 inches or about 2.4 feet.


Water Released by the SRA to Downstream Communities for 2016 = 2,079.4 acre-feet, which equals about 0.96 inches off the lake. This equals about 678 million gallons of water released to downtown communities that have rights to the water.


Water Pumped by Dallas for 2016 = 39,904.9 acre-feet or about 1.54 feet or about 18.5 inches taken off the lake by Dallas pumping. This equals about 13 billion gallons of water removed through pumping by Dallas.


Water Released Downstream by the SRA through the Tainter Flood Gates when the Lake was overfull in 2016 = 290,064 acre-feet or about 10.48 feet or about 125.76 inches. This represents about 94.5 billion gallons of water.


So, the total amount of water removed from the lake so far in 2016 is about 427,728.3 acre-feet or about 16.45 feet. About 68% of that has been through downstream releases through the flood gates when the lake was overfull to prevent damage to the dam. 22% has been due to evaporation. Only 9% left the lake via pumping by Dallas.


Dallas Water Utilities has pumped 39,904.9 acre-feet from Lake Fork so far this year. That represents about 30% of the water that Dallas is entitled to pump from Lake Fork in a year yet we are now 58% of the way through the year, so it appears Dallas will not take nearly what they are entitled to pump in a year. So far Dallas has averaged pumping about 61 million gallons per day.


Best wishes and pray/hope/dance for rain!!


Steve Chick

You didn't figure in the sink hole in the back of Williams!!

Thanks for sharing Bruce and Steve. This kind of transparency is appreciated! I'm sure all of the 100 degree plus days in the forecast will cause quite a bit of evaporation in August as well.

I've always said that folks grossly underestimate the effect of evaporation on lake levels. Thanks for putting it into numbers that everyone can understand.

I know it's probably a drop in the bucket, but has anyone ever given you the amount of water pulled from the other pump? I think it is for Quitman, it's the one by the SRA office. Oh, and I think they're expanding it.

Steve thanks for doing this and posting it. Maybe one day people will realize how much water is lost to evaparation.

Thanks Steve and Bruce for taking the time time to do this, good info.

They are upgrading not really expanding and your right the amount that they pull out is a drop in the bucket . I'm not sure of the amount but it couldn't be much, the summer sun is very thirsty

I don't think anybody is really gonna care. Evaporation is something that no one has any control over. Jeeez

Nor can anyone control drought, monsoon or our lakes being used for their intended purpose...water supply. But perhaps if the ignorant, tin-foil hat wearing crowd took the time to understand evaporation, we wouldn't have to read all the conspiracy threads about black helicopters, black trucks and secret pipelines stealing the water out of Lake Fork. Jeeez!