Bois d'Arc Lake (Red River Basin)
Bois d'Arc Lake is located northeast of the City of Bonham and north-northwest from the Town of Honey Grove in Fannin County. The dam is located on Bois d'Arc Creek (upstream of the confluence with Honey Grove Creek), a tributary of the Red River. The lake is named after the Bois d'Arc tree (a hardwood tree named by the French explorers in 1700s), which commonly grows in the area and whose name honors the local area and history. The lake is owned and operated by North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) for water supply and recreational purposes. NTMWD began the process to permit the reservoir in 2003. The state water rights permit number 12151 was granted on June 26, 2015 by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers 404 permit, SWT-0-14659, followed with its final approval in February of 2018. The reservoir and dam were designed by Freese and Nichols Inc. (who also acted as Program and Construction Manager for the project). The main construction effort used the Construction Manager At Risk (CMAR) delivery method. The CMARs for the project were Archer Western of Irving (dam and terminal storage reservoir), Garney Construction of Kansas City, Missouri, (treatment plant, pump stations and pipelines), and Austin Bridge & Road of Irving (state highway and county roads). The environmental mitigation full-service provider was Resource Environmental Solutions of Houston, Texas. The main bid package contractor for construction of the dam was Phillips & Jordan, Inc.
The dam is a two mile long, 90 feet high zoned earthen embankment, with its top elevation at 554.5 feet. Construction of the dam started in May of 2018. Closure of dam and deliberate impoundment of water began on April 14, 2021. The Bois d'Arc Lake formally reached capacity for the first time on April 30, 2024, but water diversions to the treatment plant facility began in March 2023. At the top of the conservation pool, which has an elevation of 534 feet, the lake encompasses a surface area of 16,526 acres and stores 367,609 acre-feet of water. The average depth is about 22 feet with a maximum depth of about 70 feet when the lake is full. The Intake and outlet structure is made up of a 110-foot tall concrete tower with 7-foot by 7-foot inlet gates and dual 78 inch concrete-encased conduit pipes under the dam that feed lake water into the pump station located downstream. The lowest intake elevation is 467.3 feet. The dam's service spillway has a 60-foot-wide, 3-cycle labyrinth weir with a crest elevation of 534 feet. The earthen, grass-lined emergency spillway is located on the right abutment with the crest elevation of 540 feet. If the water level reaches this elevation, the reservoir would store 457,767 acre-feet of water with a surface area of 19,616 acres. The Maximum Design Water Level (MDWL) for this reservoir is 550 feet in elevation. At this level the reservoir would have a maximum storage of 678,337 acre-feet, with a surface area of 23,967 acres. The dam controls a drainage area of approximately 328.8 square miles.