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Lake Livingston
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Lake Livingston
Lake Livingston is a reservoir located in Piney Woods in Houston, Madison, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity and Walker counties in east Texas, United States. Lake Livingston was built and is owned and operated by the Trinity River Authority (TRA) of Texas under contract with the City of Houston for water-supply purposes. The USCG Auxiliary Flotilla 6-9 is also stationed on the lake. The lake is the third-largest lake located in the state of Texas (only the Sam Rayburn Reservoir and Toledo Bend Reservoir are larger). The Livingston Dam, constructed across the Trinity River about 7 miles (11 km) southwest of the city of Livingston is 2.5 miles (4 km) in length and has an average depth of 55 feet (17 m).
The lake's construction was paid for by the sale of revenue bonds, to be redeemed with income from the sale of water. The dam construction began in 1966 and was completed in 1969 by Forrest and Cotton, Incorporated. The cost to build the earthen dam was US$83,996,957 ($721,267,181 in 2023 dollars).
In January 2026, The Washington Post reported that the National Inventory of Dams listed the condition of the dam as "unsatisfactory".
Water stored in the lake supplies 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. Many public and commercial recreation facilities, including full-service marinas, camping, and motel accommodations, are located along the shoreline. The City of Houston owns two-thirds of the lake's water rights, with the remaining third under the control of the TRA.
Lake Livingston provides numerous opportunities for fishing, particularly white bass and catfish. Specifics are available from Texas Parks & Wildlife.
In 2021, the East Texas Electric Cooperative, the Trinity River Authority, and the City of Houston officially dedicated the R.C. Thomas Hydroelectric Project, which generates electricity by utilizing the power of water flowing from Lake Livingston to the Trinity River below the dam. According to the Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, the project generates enough clean energy to serve approximately 12,000 households in East Texas and has the potential to offset approximately 64,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power-generating plants each year.
The earthfill dam has a concrete spillway and was designed by Brown and Root, Incorporated (now KBR, Inc). The dam has a spillway crest elevation of 99 feet (30 m) above mean sea level. The average base width of the dam's earthen embankment is 310 feet (94 m) wide. The spillway is designed and constructed to pass flows of three times the maximum recorded flow of the river at this site.
Lake Livingston has a surface area of 83,000 acres (360 km2) and impounds 1,750,000 acre-feet (2.16 km3) of water at its normal pool elevation of 131 feet (40 m) above mean sea level. The average depth of the lake is 23 feet (7 m) with a maximum depth of 90 feet (27 m). Lake Livingston has more than 450 miles (700 km) of shoreline extending into San Jacinto, Polk, Walker, and Trinity Counties.
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Lake Livingston
Lake Livingston is a reservoir located in Piney Woods in Houston, Madison, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity and Walker counties in east Texas, United States. Lake Livingston was built and is owned and operated by the Trinity River Authority (TRA) of Texas under contract with the City of Houston for water-supply purposes. The USCG Auxiliary Flotilla 6-9 is also stationed on the lake. The lake is the third-largest lake located in the state of Texas (only the Sam Rayburn Reservoir and Toledo Bend Reservoir are larger). The Livingston Dam, constructed across the Trinity River about 7 miles (11 km) southwest of the city of Livingston is 2.5 miles (4 km) in length and has an average depth of 55 feet (17 m).
The lake's construction was paid for by the sale of revenue bonds, to be redeemed with income from the sale of water. The dam construction began in 1966 and was completed in 1969 by Forrest and Cotton, Incorporated. The cost to build the earthen dam was US$83,996,957 ($721,267,181 in 2023 dollars).
In January 2026, The Washington Post reported that the National Inventory of Dams listed the condition of the dam as "unsatisfactory".
Water stored in the lake supplies 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. Many public and commercial recreation facilities, including full-service marinas, camping, and motel accommodations, are located along the shoreline. The City of Houston owns two-thirds of the lake's water rights, with the remaining third under the control of the TRA.
Lake Livingston provides numerous opportunities for fishing, particularly white bass and catfish. Specifics are available from Texas Parks & Wildlife.
In 2021, the East Texas Electric Cooperative, the Trinity River Authority, and the City of Houston officially dedicated the R.C. Thomas Hydroelectric Project, which generates electricity by utilizing the power of water flowing from Lake Livingston to the Trinity River below the dam. According to the Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, the project generates enough clean energy to serve approximately 12,000 households in East Texas and has the potential to offset approximately 64,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power-generating plants each year.
The earthfill dam has a concrete spillway and was designed by Brown and Root, Incorporated (now KBR, Inc). The dam has a spillway crest elevation of 99 feet (30 m) above mean sea level. The average base width of the dam's earthen embankment is 310 feet (94 m) wide. The spillway is designed and constructed to pass flows of three times the maximum recorded flow of the river at this site.
Lake Livingston has a surface area of 83,000 acres (360 km2) and impounds 1,750,000 acre-feet (2.16 km3) of water at its normal pool elevation of 131 feet (40 m) above mean sea level. The average depth of the lake is 23 feet (7 m) with a maximum depth of 90 feet (27 m). Lake Livingston has more than 450 miles (700 km) of shoreline extending into San Jacinto, Polk, Walker, and Trinity Counties.
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