Lake Buchanan Water Level
Lake Buchanan is at 1,018.57 ft today (Oct 6), 1.43 ft below its 1,020 ft full pool.
Texas · Colorado River
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Water level history
About Lake Buchanan
Lake Buchanan is a reservoir on the Colorado River in Texas, operated by Lower Colorado River Authority. It's one of the largest lakes in Texas by surface area. Its full summer pool sits at 1020 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from USGS gauge 08148000 and update every 15 to 60 minutes.
Understanding Lake Buchanan's water level
Lake Buchanan sits behind the first dam LCRA ever finished, and the dam almost did not get built by the agency that runs it today. A company controlled by utility magnate Samuel Insull started construction on what was then called Hamilton Dam in April 1931, but Insull's holding company collapsed in the Great Depression and work stopped less than half done. Texas created the Lower Colorado River Authority in 1934 largely to rescue the project, and LCRA finished the dam in 1938 using federal Public Works Administration money secured by U.S. Rep. James P. Buchanan, for whom it was renamed. The multiple arch and gravity structure crosses the Colorado River in Burnet and Llano counties for about 11,000 feet and stands 145 feet high. It carries 37 floodgates able to pass 348,000 cubic feet per second, because the design maximum water surface sits only about four feet above the top of conservation pool, leaving Buchanan almost no room to hold back a flood; big inflows mostly move through to Lake Travis downstream. LCRA spent $51.1 million strengthening those gates in 2021.
Buchanan and Lake Travis are the only two of the six Highland Lakes built to store water rather than just pass it downstream, and LCRA manages them together as one supply for more than a million people plus industry, agriculture, and the environment. Since January 1, 2025, LCRA has held Buchanan at a flat 1,020 feet above mean sea level year round; before that the target eased to 1,018 feet from May through October to leave room for irrigation releases, then climbed back to 1,020 feet for winter. Combined storage in Buchanan and Travis together decides whether interruptible agricultural customers around Garwood, Lakeside, and the Gulf Coast get any water at all. Under drought management plans LCRA adopted starting in 2012, the storage floor for releasing water to those rice farmers was set at 775,000 acre-feet in 2012, 920,000 acre-feet in 2013, and 1.1 million acre-feet in 2014, and farmers went without Highland Lakes irrigation water in each of those three years.
State biologists rate Buchanan among the best striped bass fisheries in Texas. It also holds white bass, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, Guadalupe bass, and a catfish population dominated by blue catfish, with channel and flathead catfish mixed in. A 2015 Texas Parks and Wildlife survey found largemouth bass catch rates had fallen off noticeably from prior years and tied the drop to the drought and the low water that came with it. That same drought exposed Old Bluffton, a town of roughly fifty families that LCRA relocated, along with more than three hundred graves, when the rising lake covered it in 1937. The ruins along old Highway 29 resurfaced again in 1984 and around 2011, then went back underwater starting in May 2015. The Vanishing Texas River Cruise, running out of the lake's east shore for more than three decades, built part of its business on boat trips past that submerged history. The lake reached 99.8 percent of full pool in July 2025, its highest point since March 2005, after Fourth of July weekend storms caused deadly flooding across the Hill Country.
Lake Buchanan — frequently asked
What is Lake Buchanan's full pool elevation?
1,020 feet above mean sea level. LCRA has held it there year round since January 1, 2025; before that the target eased to 1,018 feet from May through October to leave room for irrigation releases, then rose back to 1,020 feet for winter. At full pool the lake covers roughly 22,100 acres and holds about 867,000 acre-feet, per LCRA and the Texas Water Development Board.
What is Lake Buchanan's record low level?
983.7 feet above mean sea level, reached September 9, 1952, during a drought that lasted eleven years and was, at the time, the worst on record in Texas. That is about 36 feet below full pool. Later droughts came close but did not break it; Buchanan bottomed out at 998.62 feet in July 2023, its lowest point in eight years.
What is Lake Buchanan's record high level?
1,021.4 feet above mean sea level, set December 20, 1991, during the same Christmas week flooding that pushed Lake Travis to its own record of 710.44 feet. Because Buchanan's design maximum water surface is only about 1,024 feet, that flood left the lake within roughly 2.6 feet of its structural ceiling.
Why does Lake Buchanan's level drop even outside a drought?
Mostly because the lake has almost no flood cushion above conservation pool, so LCRA opens the dam's 37 floodgates and passes large inflows through to Lake Travis rather than storing them. On top of that, irrigation and municipal releases draw the lake down through the year, and evaporation off more than 22,000 acres of open water removes a steady amount too.
Why did LCRA stop releasing water to rice farmers downstream?
Buchanan and Lake Travis are managed as one combined pool, and LCRA's drought plans set a minimum combined storage level below which the agency asks the state for permission to withhold water from interruptible agricultural customers around Garwood, Lakeside, and the Gulf Coast. That minimum was 775,000 acre-feet in 2012, 920,000 in 2013, and 1.1 million acre-feet in 2014, and rice farmers went without water in each of those years.
When did Lake Buchanan last fill up completely?
July 2025. Storms over Fourth of July weekend sent the lake to 99.8 percent of full pool, its highest level since March 2005. Buchanan rose about 9 feet in a matter of days, from around 1,002 feet to 1,011 feet before topping out, while LCRA opened floodgates to move the extra water downstream; Lake Travis climbed about 21 feet over that same stretch.
What fish is Lake Buchanan best known for?
Striped bass. Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists consider it one of the state's best striper fisheries, and it also carries white bass, hybrid bass, largemouth bass, Guadalupe bass, and a catfish population led by blue catfish with channel and flathead catfish mixed in. A 2015 state survey found largemouth bass catch rates had fallen off, which biologists tied to the drought and the low water at the time.
Other lakes near Lake Buchanan
- Canyon LakeTX
- Benbrook LakeTX
- Lake ConroeTX
- Belton LakeTX
- Cooper Lake (Jim Chapman Lake)TX
- Amistad ReservoirTX
See current levels for all 27 Texas lakes and reservoirs →
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