Lake Livingston

Built, owned and operated by the Trinity River Authority of Texas (TRA), Lake Livingston is the largest lake constructed for water supply purposes only located totally within the State of Texas. The lake covers approximately 83,000 surface acres, with a normal pool elevation of 131 feet above mean sea level. The Livingston Dam, constructed across the Trinity River approximately seven miles southwest of the city of Livingston, is 2½ 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.

Rainfall amounts and current lake levels are of major concern to those who live in close proximity to a large body of water. By design, Lake Livingston has no flood control capabilities/flood storage capabilities, thus flows entering the lake, either from rainfall in the immediate area or from flows coming down the Trinity River, must be passed through the lake as the increased flows occur. Spillway operations at Lake Livingston mirror river flows. Within a relatively short period of time, as river flows increase, discharges increase and as river flows decrease, discharges decrease.