Buffalo Spring Lake (Brazos River Basin)

Buffalo Spring Lake is located about nine miles southeast of Lubbock in Lubbock County, on the Double Mountain Fork Brazos River, a tributary of the Brazos River.  The reservoir is owned and operated by the Lubbock County Water Improvement District No. 1 for recreational purposes.  Water Right Permit No. 12-37065 was issued for the reservoir to the District by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on February 20, 1958.  Construction of the dam began in early 1958, and the dam and spillway were completed at the end of 1959.  Deliberate impoundment started September 15, 1959, and on July 6, 1960 water was flowing over the spillway for the first time.  All parts of the project were accepted as complete on July 15, 1960.  The dam is a compacted earthfill structure 1,600 feet long and 68 feet high with the top of the dam at an elevation of 3,029.4 feet above mean sea level.  The lake has a capacity of 4,200 acre-feet and a surface area of 200 acres at the spillway elevation of 3,015 feet above mean sea level.  The dam controls a large drainage area of about 6,000 square miles, but most areas are non-contributing.