Calaveras Lake is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

on Calaveras Creek, located 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, US. The reservoir was formed in 1969 by the construction of a dam to provide a

cooling pond A cooling pond is a man-made body of water primarily formed for the purpose of cooling heated water or to store and supply cooling water to a nearby power plant or industrial facility such as a petroleum refinery, pulp and paper mill, chemica ...

for a series of

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

s, called the Calaveras Power Station, to supply additional electricity to the city of San Antonio. The dam and lake are managed by

CPS Energy CPS Energy (formerly City Public Service Board of San Antonio) is the municipal electric utility serving the city of San Antonio, Texas. Acquired by the city in 1942, CPS Energy serves over 840,750 electricity customers and more than 352,585 natu ...

of San Antonio. Together with the smaller Victor Braunig Lake, Calaveras Lake was one of the first projects in the nation to use treated wastewater for power plant cooling. The reservoir is partly filled with wastewater that has undergone both primary and secondary treatment at a San Antonio Water System treatment plant. Calaveras Lake also serves as a venue for recreation, including fishing and boating. Sailboats are prohibited on the lake.

Fish and plant life

Calaveras Lake has been stocked with many species of fish for recreational fishing. Fish present in Calaveras Lake include

red drum The red drum (''Sciaenops ocellatus''), also known as redfish, channel bass, puppy drum, spottail bass, or simply red, is a game fish found in the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts to Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to northern Mexi ...

hybrid striped bass A hybrid striped bass (''Morone chrysops × M. saxatilis''), also commonly referred to by the portmanteau wiper, is a freshwater hybrid fish between white bass (''Morone chrysops'') and striped bass (''M. saxatilis''). In the United States, wipe ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus nigricans'') is a carnivorous, freshwater fish, freshwater, ray-finned fish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, native to the eastern United States, eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada an ...

Recreational uses

Thousand Trails Management Services operates the 147 acre (57 ha) public facility under contract with CPS Energy at the lake. The lake features facilities for camping, picnicking, fishing, boating, and hiking.

In popular culture

Calaveras Lake is the setting of one of the culminating scenes in the 1996 film '' Courage Under Fire'', during which

Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon ( ; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. He was ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars in 2007, and in 2010 was one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received va ...

's character reveals his knowledge of the truth regarding the death of the character of Captain Karen Walden, the investigation of which constitutes the subject of the film up to that point.

References

External links

Calaveras Lake - Texas Parks & Wildlife

Calaveras Lake power plant complex pollution: monthly, annual, and daily (near real-time) reports
from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ( TCEQ) {{authority control Calaveras Geography of San Antonio Protected areas of Bexar County, Texas Bodies of water of Bexar County, Texas Cooling ponds CPS Energy

Fish and plant life

Recreational uses

In popular culture

See also

References

External links