The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority or GBRA was formed in 1933 by the Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 legislature. Its main concerns are water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

 supply and water conservation

Conservation ethic

Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world: its, fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity. Secondary focus is on materials conservation and energy conservation, which are seen as important to...

 in the Guadalupe River Basin

Guadalupe River (Texas)

The Guadalupe River runs from Kerr County, Texas to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The river is a popular destination for rafters and canoers. Larger cities along the river include New Braunfels, Kerrville, Seguin, Gonzales, Cuero, and Victoria...

, which includes the Blanco, Comal

Comal River

The Comal River is the shortest navigable river in the state of Texas in the United States. Proclaimed the "longest shortest river in the world" by locals, it runs entirely within the city limits of New Braunfels in southeast Comal County. It is a tributary of the Guadalupe River...

, and San Marcos

San Marcos River

The San Marcos River rises from the San Marcos Springs, the location of Aquarena Springs, in San Marcos, Texas. The springs are home to several threatened or endangered species, including the Texas Blind Salamander, Fountain Darter, and Texas Wild Rice...

 rivers. The authority extends over ten counties. The general offices of the authority are located at 933 East Court Street in Seguin

Seguin, Texas

Seguin is a city in Guadalupe County, Texas, in the United States. It is part of the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 22,011; the July 1, 2009 Census estimate, however, showed the population had increased to 26,842...

.

Dams and reservoirs

The GBRA currently operates dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

s that form seven reservoirs along the Guadalupe River in Texas:

• Canyon Lake
  Canyon Lake (Texas)
  Canyon Lake is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country in the United States. Canyon Lake is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir formed on the Guadalupe River in Comal County by Canyon Dam, which is located about sixteen miles northwest of New Braunfels. The dam, lake,...
  
  
• Lake Dunlap
  Lake Dunlap
  Lake Dunlap is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River near the town of New Braunfels in Guadalupe County, Texas, USA. The reservoir was formed in 1931 by the construction of a dam to provide hydroelectric power to the area. Management of the dam and lake was assumed by the Guadalupe-Blanco River...
  
  
• Lake Gonzales
  Lake Gonzales
  Lake Gonzales is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River 4 miles southeast of the town of Belmont in Gonzales County, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1931 by the construction of a dam to provide hydroelectric power to the area. Management of the dam and lake was assume by the Guadalupe-Blanco...
  
  
• Lake McQueeney
  Lake McQueeney
  Lake McQueeney is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River located west of the town of Seguin in Guadalupe County, Texas, USA. The reservoir was formed in 1928 by the construction of a dam to provide hydroelectric power to the area. Management of the dam and lake was assumed by the Guadalupe-Blanco...
  
  
• Meadow Lake
  Meadow Lake (Texas)
  Meadow Lake is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River south of the town of Seguin in Guadalupe County, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1931 by the construction of a dam to provide hydroelectric power to the area. Management of the dam and lake was assumed by the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority...
  
  
• Lake Placid
  Lake Placid (Texas)
  Lake Placid is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River one half mile southwest of the town of Seguin in Guadalupe County, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1928 by the construction of a dam on the river. Management of the dam and lake was assumed by the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority on May 1, 1963...
  
  
• Lake Wood
  Lake Wood
  Lake Wood is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River 4 miles west of the town of Gonzales in Gonzales County, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1931 by the construction of a dam to provide hydroelectric power to the area. Management of the dam and lake was assumed by the Guadalupe-Blanco River...
  
  

Other reservoirs managed by the GBRA include:

• Coleto Creek Reservoir
  Coleto Creek Reservoir
  Coleto Creek Reservoir is a reservoir on Coleto Creek and Perdido Creek located in Fannin, Texas, 15 miles southwest of Victoria, Texas. The surface of the lake extends into Victoria and Goliad counties...
  
  

See also

• Upper Guadalupe River Authority
  Upper Guadalupe River Authority
  The Upper Guadalupe River Authority or UGRA was created in 1939 by the Texas Legislature as a quasi-governmental entity to manage the Guadalupe River as a water resource in Kerr County, Texas. The authority is chartered with the mandate "to control, develop, store, preserve and distribute" the...
  
  
• List of Texas river authorities