About Lake Ralph Hall

What is Lake Ralph Hall?

Lake Ralph Hall will be the newest lake and one of the state's biggest projects to be built in nearly 30 years. The new lake will be located on the North Sulphur River near Ladonia in Fannin County. It will provide a safe, reliable water supply for some 29 communities that Upper Trinity Regional Water District (UTRWD) serves in North Texas region.

Construction on the lake is scheduled to begin in early 2021 with water delivery by 2025. Once complete, it will hold a maximum of 180,000 acre-feet of water (about 58.7 billion gallons) and will provide residents of Denton and Collin counties with up to 54 million gallons of additional water daily, including:

35 million gallons daily (MGD) of raw water
19 MGD of reuse water

UTRWD holds a water rights permit issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in December 2013. In January 2020, UTRWD received a Section 404 (Clean Water Act) permit from the the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers.

Why is Lake Ralph Hall Needed?

UTRWD serves one of the fastest growing regions in North Texas. The area’s population is expected to increase nearly five fold within 50 years, requiring around 140 million gallons of fresh water daily for cities it serves in Denton and Collin Counties.

To avoid a water shortage, UTRWD is actively planning today for the water it will need to support its thriving communities. A comprehensive plan to meet these water demands include ongoing water conservation and reuse programs as well as maximizing the use of existing water sources. UTRWD currently supplies its customers water from these sources: Lake Lewisville and Ray Roberts Lake in Denton County (by contract with cities of Dallas and Denton) and Jim Chapman Lake (by contract with City of Commerce) in northeast Texas.

While conservation and reuse has helped delay the need for new sources of water, it is not enough to meet demands for the next 50 years. An additional source of water is needed by 2025 to meet our anticipated water needs. Developing Lake Ralph Hall will provide our region with this needed water. The lake is both the most feasible and lowest cost source of new water available to UTRWD, and it can be built in time to avoid a water shortage.

Over the next 50 years, UTRWD will need additional raw water supplies beyond Lake Ralph Hall and its existing supplies to meet its growing water needs.