Despite impassioned pleas, GBRA moving forward with plans to drain area lakes next month

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority is moving forward with plans to drain four lakes, despite impassioned pleas Tuesday from a roomful of area residents and business owners who oppose the project.

Many said draining of the lakes would affect their livelihood.

“Everything I love, care for, worked so hard to get to in my life is over if you take this away without a plan to fix it,” said Thomas Belton, who owns a water ski school at Lake McQueeney. “My way of supporting my family is gone.”

The general manager of the GBRA says it’s a safety issue. They’re concerned about aging spill gates at the nearly 90-year-old dams at Lake McQueeney, Lake Gonzales, Lake Placid and Meadow Lake. The decision to draw down the lakes was made after the latest spill gate failure in May at Lake Dunlap. That followed a previous spill gate failure at Lake Wood in 2016.

The draining is scheduled to begin September 16.