Over 1 billion gallons of water pumped from Amarillo playa lakes after recent flooding

After the recent rains in Amarillo, there was historic flooding in several areas of the city. And the amount of water pumped from city playa lakes provides a unique perspective.

In just more than a month, more than one billion gallons of water were pumped from six Amarillo playa lakes. From June 2 to July 10, an estimated 1,016,000,000 gallons of water were pumped from six playa lakes. 

For further perspective, the Route 66 Water Tower on Sixth Avenue holds one million gallons of water. The recent deluge in Amarillo would be mathematically equivalent to pumping every drop of water from 1,000 Route 66 Water Towers.

“The numbers show just how much rainfall Amarillo received in May and June,” said City of Amarillo (COA) Interim Director of Public Works Alan Harder. “The amount of water that has been pumped out of these six playa lakes – and the amount of water still left to be pumped – speaks to the monumental amount of rain that was received in a relatively short time.”

The breakdown (in gallons): 

Lawrence Lake: 435,000,000

T-Anchor: 150,000,000

McDonald Lake: 139,000,000

Greenways: 133,000,000

Bennet: 80,000,000

Martin Road: 79,000,000

Water from Lawrence Lake was pumped by city pumps and a pump provided by the Texas Department of Transportation. Pumping at the playa lakes will continue for multiple months and the city will continue to track the amount of water pumped from the playa lakes.