Grapevine Lake

Grapevine Lake is an artificial reservoir in the Trinity River basin just northwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in northeastern Tarrant and southern Denton counties (at 32°58' N, 97°03' W). It is owned by the United States government and operated by the Fort Worth district of the United States Army Corps of Engineers primarily for flood control and water conservation. In addition to these functions, the reservoir's waters meet municipal, industrial, manufacturing, and recreational needs, not only for residents of Fort Worth, but for those living in Grapevine and Dallas, both of which own some of the storage space in Grapevine Lake. The Dallas County Park Cities Water Control and Improvement District, Number 2, also holds storage space in the reservoir. Construction was begun on the dam on Denton Creek in January 1948 and was completed in June 1952, with water impoundment beginning in July 1952. The lake's conservation storage capacity is 187,700 acre-feet, with a flood control storage capacity of 247,000 acre-feet; its surface area is 7,380 acres. The reservoir drains an area of 695 square miles above its dam. The local terrain is low-rolling to flat and is surfaced by sandy and clay loams that support scrub brush, cacti, and grasses. In the early 1990s the lake had considerable residential development along its shores.