BELTON, Texas — The recent heavy rainfall has more than filled a number of Central Texas lakes after several years of them being at low levels.
As of May 13, Belton Lake is at 100% capacity and the Waco Lake is 37% over capacity.
The U.S. Core of Engineers Hydraulics Engineer James Moffitt told 6 News the Belton Lake has not reached 100% capacity since 2021. For the Waco Lake, it has not been over capacity on this level since 2018.
"The Waco Lake is there to prevent flooding and it's operating as it's designed," Moffitt explained.
It has been a long time since this area has seen this level of rain, but Brazos River Authority Water Services Manager Aaron Abel says it didn't necessarily come as a surprise.
"Typically what happens is we have droughts and they're broken by floods and that's what happened this time as well," Abel explained.
What the focus is now is to prepare for any sort of drought the summer may bring. This is something Moffitt says is the next step.
"Once we near the top of the conservation pool, will taper down our releases from the Waco Lake and that'll just keep the water in the flood pool just a little bit longer," Moffitt explained.
From a water supply perspective, Abel said they like to see reservoirs full because that's what they're intended to do.
"Damage was done because of the flooding and while that's unfortunate, the benefit of the flood is that our reservoirs are full and our water supply is in great shape heading into the summer," Abel said.
On a city level, Abel expects for water restrictions to be avoided for the next few months in parts of Central Texas but Abel still recommends water conservation year-round.
"Most reservoirs were intended to store water for use during the dry times and that water goes to helping generate electricity and drinking of course," Abel continued. "In certain areas, we're not really worried about going into any declaration any time soon. It's going to take the reservoirs a while to slowly decline."