Holiday Lake Estates was established as a subdivision community, in Polk County Texas, in the early 1960’s by CJ Gerlach. During the development of this community, several Dams and 1 Spillway was built. Those are privately owned by the HLECC (& the residents within it), but the spillway is inspected and regulated by TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality). There are 6 records listed on the TCEQ website, for the Holiday Lake Estate, Inc (as it is listed on their website) –> Click Here For All or below for each:
- –> RN104235940, ADJ 4267
- –> RN101578110, CJ GERLACH DAM
- –> RN105988828, DEVILS LAKE DAM
- –> RN101604684, HOLIDAY LAKE DAM
- –> RN101600161, LAKE LONDA LYNN DAM
- –> RN101606648, SALLY LAKE DAM
# 1, above is the water rights that we hold for the ability to dam up and control the direction of the water flow from the Sally Creek branch of the Polk County waterways. #2 is what is supposed to be a dam area at the end of what used to be Devil’s Lake and control the outflow from it. I believe that failed many years ago during a flood. #3 is what I believe once dammed up the water flowing out of Devil’s Lake and the large culvert from Gerlach Lake to remain in that area. Please correct me if I am wrong. #4 is the dam area, at the NW side of Holiday Lake known as ‘Reserve C’. #5 is the Londa Lynn dam and spillway areas. And, #6 is ??. I have not seen documents or maps referring to it, but it was constructed in 1966 with a small water capacity, but supposedly larger water capacity than Devil’s Lake or Holiday Lake. It could be part of Holiday Lake or even the NW end of Gerlach. Hopefully one of the Old-Timers will know.
Most of our dams are EXEMPT from TCEQ regulations and inspections, but the Londa Lynn dam and spillway are NON-EXEMPT. For this dam, we need to follow the guidelines of the TCEQ Dam Safety Program –> Here. To accomplish the goal of properly maintaining the spillway and related dam, they ask that we have a group of people who are responsible for inspecting the area, in an informal and observational manner, and sending in reports to them. You can read more about that in Chapter 5 –> Here. You can read all about the guidelines for operation and maintenance of dams in Texas –> Here. TCEQ, as part of the ‘inspection program’ is supposed to come out and inspect the dam on regular intervals. For our dam, this was set to every 5 years. As I stated, in another post, TCEQ did not do their 2017 inspection, as requested by an HLECC board member.
I am hoping that all of this information does not overwhelm you, but I do believe that our HLECC, residents, and TCEQ itself need to make sure that our dam is well taken care of and that a formal routine inspection and Emergency Action Plan is put in place for the benefit & safety of all residents live in our community.