Mountain Creek Lake is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

located southwest of Downtown

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

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, in the Mountain Creek area of the city. It is located south of SH 180, west of Spur 408, north of I-20, and east of FM 1382. The defunct Naval Air Station Dallas (

Hensley Field The Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Complex or Grand Prairie AFRC (formerly Naval Air Station Dallas or Hensley Field) is a former United States Navy Naval Air Station located on Mountain Creek Lake in southwest Dallas. The installation was e ...

), now an Armed Forces Reserve Center, is located on the northern shore of the lake.

Mountain Creek Lake Park A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

is on the lake's southeastern and southwestern edges. The Texas Department of State Health Services in April 1996 issued a ban on keeping or eating fish due to high contamination levels of

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * ...

s and other toxic chemicals. The ban was lifted in 2010, but TDSHS advised against consuming any fish caught in the lake. Contaminants entered the lake from the Dallas Naval Air Station and industrial facilities such as an airport factory and power plant. In 2017, TDSHS updated its advisory to mention that White Crappie were now safe to eat, while Channel and Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, and White Bass may be eaten in limited amounts. Other types of fish such as Common Carp, Freshwater Drum, or Smallmouth Buffalo are still deemed unsafe to eat.

History

Construction on Mountain Creek Dam began in 1929, and the dam was complete in early 1937. The reservoir was designed as a cooling reservoir for a Dallas Power and Light Company electric power plant. The original permit for the lake suggested a capacity of , but the capacity in 1992 was only because of heavy

siltation Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate Terrestrial ecoregion, terrestrial Clastic rock, clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the ...

History

References

See also