About 1890, the City of Tyler water supply was a small pond near the courthouse. Seeing a growing need for more water, City fathers decided to take water from a larger grist mill pond about four miles from downtown on Indian Creek. The City purchased land near this pond and in 1894 an earthen dam was constructed to form Lake Bellwood, the City's new source of surface water. Over the years, the dam was raised and the spillway has been renovated twice. The surface area of the lake now covers 170 acres. This dam, built by a special process in 1894, is listed in the National Registry as a historic structure. The City stopped using the lake as its primary water supply when Lake Tyler was completed and the Golden Road Treatment facility was placed in service in 1950. Lake Tyler East was added via a channel to Lake Tyler in 1967. The treatment facility at Lake Bellwood was abandoned in 1965 and, since then, only Kelly-Springfield and some golf courses use raw, untreated water from Lake Bellwood. The adjoining 185 acres of marginal land surrounding Lake Bellwood is used primarily for limited recreational purposes.

As mentioned above, Lake Tyler was completed in 1949 and placed in service in 1950. This lake covers about 2,400 surface acres. Lake Tyler and its sister Lake Tyler East, completed several years later, continue to serve as the primary source of water for the City. Lake Tyler and Lake Tyler East also serve as a major recreational area for East Texas even though they are under tight sanitary controls. The City maintains six park areas around the two lakes. Lake Tyler is on Prairie Creek, a tributary of Mud Creek and lies in the Angelina River watershed. It has a storage capacity of 14 billion gallons (43,000 acre-feet) of water at spillway elevation and has an average depth of 18.2 feet. Its watershed area is 42 square miles (27,000 acres).

Lake Tyler East was connected to Lake Tyler via a channel, which in effect formed one lake from the standpoint of water supply. This lake covers about 2,500 acres, a watershed of 65 square miles, and an average depth of 16.2 feet. This depth makes the total storage capacity slightly less than Lake Tyler. The two lakes have a combined safe yield of about 30 million gallons daily.

Lake Palestine actually became a part of Tyler's water supply in 1965 when the city entered into a contract with the Upper Neches River Municipal Water Authority for the purchase of 67,200 acre-feet of water annually. This equates to an available yield for Tyler of about 60 million gallons daily. The payments for this abundant water supply total $12 million. Tyler Water Utilities is currently developing this source of water with design and engineering, environmental efforts, right-of-way acquisitions, etc. underway. The first water from this source should be available in 2003.

Tyler also maintains twelve deep-water wells to provide additional capabilities of 11 million gallons daily to the water needs of the City. These wells produce from the Carrizo ­Wilcox sand group at depths of 600 to 1,100 feet.

The Lake Tyler Pumping Station is a recently completed modern structure that encompasses the latest technology and design. It is located on the north bank of Gilley Creek in Lake Tyler extending from the shore in about 25 feet of water.

Golden Road Water Treatment Plant was originally constructed in 1950 and has been expanded and renovated to a capacity of 32 million gallons daily. Peak treatment demand of 40 million gallons can be achieved. The plant is a modern rapid sand filter facility that uses sedimentation, flocculation, filtration, and disinfection under the strict guidelines of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. Average current daily flow is almost 21 million gallons.

Westside Wastewater Treatment Plant is located on New Harmony Road (CR 46) about seven miles west of the City. The facility, placed into service in 1968, has a design capacity of 13 million gallons daily. This is a trickling-filter/activated sludge type plant utilizing mechanical aeration to achieve advanced secondary treatment levels. It serves approximately 60% of the City and most of the industrial wastewater. It recently has been renovated and upgraded to provide advanced secondary treatment to meet new federal and state regulations. Treated effluent from the plant, averaging about 7 million gallons, is discharged into Blackfork Creek, a tributary to the Neches River.

Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant is located on West Cumberland Road three miles south of Loop 323, off of Highway 69. It was constructed in 1955 as a three million-gallon facility and expanded in 1980 to the current 9 million gallons daily capacity. It, like Westside Plant, was again modified in 1993 to improve secondary treatment to meet federal and state mandates regarding the quality of effluent discharged. This treatment plant serves the other 40% of the City's sewage treatment needs and discharges effluent into West Mud Creek, which is a tributary of the Angelina River. Average daily effluent flow is five million gallons.

The Lake Bellwood (Kelly-Springfield) Raw Water Pumping Station is located near the dam. It was constructed in 1962 and enlarged in 1972. It provides untreated process and fire protection water for the Kelly-Springfield plant. It is equipped with three pumps and has a capacity of 2.9 million gallons daily, if needed.

There are water booster stations located at four well sites throughout the distribution system and at the Jan Avenue and Cameron Avenue intersection near Green Acres center. The well-site boosters take suction from ground-storage tanks and pump into the distribution system through high-service pumps. The Jan Avenue station takes from the distribution system and discharges into a closed-pressure system to provide pressure for domestic use and fire protection in an area where static pressure was not adequate.

Sewage Lift Stations are located in seven areas of the sewage-collection system where normal gravity flow is not possible. The stations range in size from 30,000 gallons daily to 4 million gallons daily capabilities.

More current water and sewer facts:

Looking back about 1983, the average daily water consumption was about 13.4 million gallons with a maximum use on August 2, 1983 of 25.9 million gallons. In 1999, average daily water consumption has been 20.9 million gallons with a maximum use on August 21, 1999 of 38.7 million gallons.

Also, in 1983 there were 515 miles of water mains and 434 miles of sewer mains in the systems. In 1999, there are 590 miles of water mains ranging in size from two to thirty-six inches in diameter. There are 519 miles of sewer mains ranging in size from six to fifty-four inches in diameter.

Currently, treated-water production capability is up to 40 million gallons a day with rated capacity of 32 million gallons daily. When Lake Palestine water is available, treated-water production capabilities will increase another 30 million gallons daily for a total capability of 70 million gallons daily. In reserve, Tyler still has the rights to another 30 million gallons daily that can be developed by increasing the size of the new treatment facility. Tyler can, indeed, become a regional water supplier well into the next century.

There are six elevated water storage tanks with a capacity of 8.47 million gallons and ground storage tanks contain another 5 1/2 million gallons.

In 1985, TWU implemented the Water-Meter Change out Program to remove the old, unreliable, spindle-type meters from the system and replace with modern, reliable water meters. This program has improved revenue by providing accurate measurement of water used by customers.

In 1987, TWU developed and implemented a Ground Water Conservation Plan, completed the Lake Palestine Diversion Study, and implemented requirements of the 1987 revisions to the Safe Drinking Water Act and monitoring thereof.

In 1988, TWU made major improvements to Hill Creek Park and Lake Tyler for citizens enjoyment. These included lighting, picnic facilities, internal roadway, pipe railing, parking, and landscaping.

In 1988, the major Blackfork Creek Interceptor Sewer construction project was completed and placed in service.

In 1989, TWU upgraded the City's Industrial Pretreatment Program to meet and exceed  Federal and State mandates.

In 1991, located and purchased the site for the Lake Palestine Water Treatment Plant and completed the new two million gallon Copeland Road Overhead Water Storage Tank to serve the growing south Tyler area.

In 1992, TWU acquired special equipment and implemented the Sewer Inflow and Infiltration Abatement Program which significantly reduced infiltration of storm water into the sanitary sewer system.

In 1993, TWU developed a Storm Water Management Plan for the entire City to develop drainage plans.

In 1993, major water and sewer rate studies were handled in house and rate increases were approved. Increases required to cover the ever-increasing costs of federal and state mandated improvements to the water and sewer systems.

In 1995, TWU made major improvements to six of Tylers deep-water wells plus design and construction started to bring two new deep wells into the system to serve the airport area and the southern area of the City.

In 1996, TWU started design and engineering efforts for a new Lake Tyler Raw Water Pumping Station. This new modern station is now in service.

Since 1996 and through current time, several major water and sewer projects have been completed or are underway to improve the availability of water during drought times as we experienced in 1998 and the fall of 1999.

In 1999, TWU began water service to the large annexed area known as the Shackleford Creek Annexation, 902 new customers spread out over approximately 4,000 acres in south Tyler. The water system portion, serving that area, owned and operated by Southern Utilities was purchased and then tied in to Tyler's system. A sanitary sewer system is now in the design and engineering stages to start providing sanitary sewer services to that annexed area as soon as possible. That process is expected to be completed in 2005.

In Sept 2002, The Water Business Office began a new automated procedure for the processing and applying of payments to customers' accounts, using the Creditron Remittance Machine.

In June 2003, Tyler Water Utilities began an installation project of 31,000 Radio Read Meters with Johnson Controls and Invensys Water Meters with a completion date scheduled for late summer 2004.  The new meters have a transmitter that is read by driving down the street instead of walking the route.  The transmitter attached to the meter in the meter box is "awakened" and the signal is received and stored on a disk in a laptop computer that is housed in a Utility Service Vehicle. When the readings are complete, the disk is then brought to the Water Business Office to be downloaded for calculations and billing. 

Largest water customers include:

• LaGloria Refinery
• Kelly-Springfield Tire Co. (untreated water only)
• Caldwell Zoo
• Briarwood Golf Club (untreated water only)
• East Texas Medical Center Hospital
• Trane Corporation
• Trinity-Mother Francis Hospital
• Southwest Dairy
• Steeple Chase Apartments
• Aramark Co.