One thing is certain: The White Rock pump station has staying power.
Despite four closures and numerous changes in use during the past 80 years, today the stately brick building on the lake’s southwest side controls every aspect of the entire City’s water supply.
How did it all began? Charlie Stringer knows.
In 1910, working to develop future water supply, the City purchased 2,292 acres of farm and forest land for construction of the White Rock pump station, dam and lake. The cost was $176,420 ($77 per acre), says Stringer, Dallas Water Utilities manager of pumping and reservoirs.
On June 24, 1911, the White Rock dam was completed. Almost three years passed before the lake was filled.
“It went 42 inches deep over the spillway,” Stringer says.
The pump station’s three boilers powered two turbine pumps. The station pumped non-treated water to pumps on Abrams Road and Goliad Street.
“The primary purpose for the water was to fight fires, wash streets and operate locomotives,” Stringer says. At the time, most homeowners dug wells for personal use and didn’t have access to City water.
In 1914, Dallas received its first and only supply of chlorinated water through the White Rock pump station. In 1921, White Rock had its first treatment plant.
But nine years later, on July 30, 1930, the pump and treatment stations closed. At the time, the Bachman Treatment Plant treated water from newly developed Lake Lewisville, which was believed to supply more pristine water from the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, Stringer says.
Many people thought the White Rock pump station’s days were over, Stringer says. But in the early 1950s, Dallas suffered through a severe drought. At its worst, Stringer says: “Dallas had an emergency diversion of water from the Red River.”
As a result, the City re-opened the White Rock pump station in May 1955. Again, the operation was short-lived. By 1957, rains had replenished Lake Lewisville, and the White Rock pump station once again was closed.
By the late 1950s, Dallas’ population was growing eastward. The pump station was re-opened each summer through 1962 to maintain water pressure on the City’s east side until the new Eastside Water Purification Plant became operational.
In 1964, the building was closed again, its days of water treatment ended.
Finally, in 1981, the pump station received historical landmark designation and the City converted the then-abandoned, graffiti-covered building into an operations facility.
Today, computers in the pump station control the area’s water supply, serving 1.8 million people in 21 cities.
