Drought has drained Lake Whitney close to a 40-year low, leaving beaches and boat ramps high and dry, and causing authorities to curtail its water releases.

The elevation of the popular lake Wednesday stood at 519.9 feet above sea level — more than 13 feet below its normal level. That’s less than an inch above the 40-year record set in 2009, and summer heat continues to evaporate up to half an inch from the lake each day.

This week the lake’s owners, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in cooperation with the Brazos River Authority, began restricting releases of water to flow downstream by more than one-third.

Brian Howard walks past a buoy that under normal conditions would be floating in the swimming area of Lofers Bend Park at Lake Whitney.
Rod Aydelotte / Waco Tribune-Herald, file

The river authority has water storage rights in Lake Whitney down to the level of 520 feet, but has now exhausted that storage.

The lake is releasing no more water than is coming in from Lake Granbury and Lake Possum Kingdom upstream, authority officials said.

Those releases are being made to meet the needs of water customers downstream, BRA officials said, but the releases may have to be curtailed further.

“We’re going to be doing this for the time being, but in the future, we’re going to have to revisit what else we can do,” said Aaron Abel, senior water resources planner for the river authority. “We’ll have to sit down in the next three or four weeks and see if we need to decrease that even further.”

Until this week, the lake had been making daily releases of water from the lake to generate hydroelectric power, which is sold to the Brazos Electric Cooperative. Now the releases are smaller and less frequent.

Abraham Phillips, lead ranger at the Lake Whitney Corps office, said some fishermen have complained this summer that the Corps has been releasing water for power generation when the lake level was low. But he said the releases were mandatory to meet contractual obligations downstream.

Lake Whitney hasn’t been at its target level of 533 feet since last September and the water’s edge has been far from its swimming beaches for months.

Boat ramps at Lofers Bend, Ham Creek and Highway 56 have been out of commission because of low levels.

Phillips said low lake levels have no doubt had some effect on the lake’s popularity, but campsites at all the Corps’ lakeside parks were full during the Fourth of July weekend.

Bert Brunett, owner of Blue Water Striper Guide Service on Lake Whitney, said the low lake levels have affected some shallower coves, but overall fishing remains strong on the lake.

“It’s not really having any effect on fishing,” he said.

He said the low levels might discourage some people from fishing, but he said Tuesday he had taken customers fishing five of the previous seven days.

Brunett, who retired as the Corps’ Lake Whitney manager 12 years ago, said the low levels should have no long-lasting effects. In fact, he said 520 feet was the target level of the lake until 1972, when the Corps allowed the lake to be raised.

“I’m 67 years old and I watched them build the lake when I was a little kid,” he said. “I can remember when what you see today was what you saw every summer.”

Lake Whitney dam has curtailed releases of water downstream as its elevation fell to less than 520 feet above sea level this week.
Rod Aydelotte / Waco Tribune-Herald

The Corps built the lake in 1951 to control destructive flooding on the Brazos River, which often submerged low-lying areas such as East Waco. The lake has never been a major source for drinking water because of its slight salinity.

The lake’s hydropower plant was built in 1953. The plant provides power to the region’s electric grid during “peak” times, such as late afternoon, when air conditioners are running full blast.

The Corps now is renovating the hydropower plant, replacing machinery, including the turbines, which have served more than 50 years. Also part of the $23 million project is the renovation and painting of the gates on the Lake Whitney dam.

When complete, the renovations will improve the efficiency of the hydropower plant, increasing its capacity from 30 megawatts to 43 megawatts without requiring additional releases.

That’s enough energy to power 21,500 Texas homes during mild weather or about 8,600 homes during hot weather.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

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