Toledo Bend Reservoir (Sabine River Basin)
The Toledo Bend Reservoir, the largest reservoir in Texas, is formed by the Toledo Bend Dam which is about eighty miles northeast of Beaumont, Texas on the Sabine River. Although the Dam was built at the place called Toledo Bend, the reservoir occupies parts of Newton, Sabine, Panola, and Shelby counties, Texas, and Sabine and De Soto parishes, Louisiana. Construction of the Toledo Bend Dam on the Sabine River, here on the border between Texas and Louisiana, began on May 11, 1964, and deliberate impoundment of water began on October 3, 1966.
The dam was completed in 1969. Massman-Johnson Construction Company served as general contractor and the two states share in the cost of the project without Federal Government's assistance. The Toledo Bend Dam and Reservoir is owned by the Sabine River authorities of Texas and Louisiana. Its rolled earthfill dam has a spillway crest elevation of 145 feet above mean sea level. Two hydroelectric units generate a total capacity of 80,750 kilowatt hours. Texas and Louisiana share the water and electricity. With a drainage area of 7,178 square miles, the Toledo Bend Reservoir conserves water for municipal, industrial, agricultural, and recreational purposes and stretches for well over 100 river miles. Currently, the lake has a conservation surface area of 181,600 acres and a shared storage capacity of 4,477,000 acre-feet at the conservation pool elevation of 172 feet above mean sea level.