Dallas Levees & Pump Stations Overview

Quick facts about the Dallas Levee System:

The Dallas Levee System is one of the largest in the U.S. The Trinity River, while not a wide river, flows 710 miles from the boarder of Oklahoma through Texas to Lake Livingston near Galveston. The waters from this lake continue on and ultimately drain into the Gulf of Mexico. Levees are dirt embankments which are used to regulate stormwater. As is the case with most levees because they are used as protection from rivers overflowing their banks, the Dallas system parallels either side of the Trinity River.

Aerial-View of Dallas Levee System

Photo By: David Mimlitch

The overall levee system begins along the Elm Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River continuing through downtown Dallas. This system is referred to as the Dallas Floodway.
The Levee System begins again along the southern Trinity River corridor with the Rochester Levee and the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant levees located in the Dallas Floodway Extension Project area.
In the Dallas Floodway, twenty-three miles of levees average a height of between 29' to 32'.
The East and West Levee Systems were originally completed in 1932 and upgraded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s.
In the 1990s, the City of Dallas built the Rochester Levee and upgraded the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant Levee.
The Dallas Floodway Levee System includes sumps and drainage systems for 51 square miles of watershed protected by the levees.
Six pump stations move floodwaters from the sumps behind the Dallas Floodway levees to the Trinity River, while an additional pump station serves the Rochester Levee, bringing the total to seven.

For more details on the Dallas Floodway and Pump Stations (link to FC Brochure)

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