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About
The Lake Arlington-Village Creek watershed begins at Village Creek’s headwaters near the town of Joshua in northern Johnson County, extending approximately 35 miles before emptying into Lake Arlington in southeastern Tarrant County. On its journey, Village Creek passes through a patchwork of urban and rural areas including Burleson, Kennedale, and Fort Worth, while the shores of the Lake itself are shared by Fort Worth and Arlington. Urban areas dominate the northern end of the watershed, with a few industrial and municipal complexes near its center, and trending more toward agricultural use in the southern extent.
Village Creek is currently listed as an impaired water body on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) 2010 Texas Integrated Report of Surface Water Quality, which indicates that Village Creek is not meeting the designated contact recreation use standard due to elevated levels of bacteria. High concentrations of a monitored, non-pathogenic strain of E. coli in water bodies like Village Creek may indicate elevated levels of other pathogenic strains that may be a danger to human health. While it is not currently listed as impaired, Lake Arlington was included in the 2012 Integrated Report for nitrate and chlorophyll-a concerns.
In December 2009, the city of Arlington began putting together a long-term plan that would guide growth and development around the Lake. Under the guidance of this Lake Arlington Master Plan , several studies have already been conducted for various water quality constituents, with several best management practices recommended as results. The LAMP's recommendations are intended to address watershed protection elements that are not addressed by federal or state regulations, and these recommendations will be studied for feasibility through the development of a watershed protection plan (WPP) for the Lake Arlington-Village Creek watershed. This plan will be a stakeholder-driven process that will incorporate water quality data studies with local knowledge and participation to create watershed-specific strategies that will best protect water quality of Lake Arlington and Village Creek while meeting the socio-economic needs of those who live, work, and play in the watershed.
View the project work plan or download the project fact sheet for more information. You can also view the Lake Arlington Master Plan here.