The winter weather might have taken its toll on the roads especially the State Highway 24 expansion with increased pot holes but it is only having a positive effect on Cooper Lake levels.
According to the Doctors Creek Unit it is only six and half feet low for the start of March. The runoff from recent rains and snow and ice have provided enough water to open all of the boat ramps on Cooper Lake, be it some will only sustain shallow-bottom boats. John’s Creek boat ramp hosted several fishing boats over this past weekend.
Cooper Lake (or Jim Chapman Lake) is just over 19,000 acre impoundment that provides water supply storage for the North Texas Municipal Water District, the Sulphur River Municipal Water District, and the city of Irving. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the water intake structure “pulls anywhere from 2.0 million gallons per day of water in the winter months to 5.0 million gallons per day in the summer months.”
The Friends of Doctors Creek Park, Inc. are hopeful for the positive lake levels as they have scheduled their annual Catfish Tournament on Saturday, May 9.