Cooling Lakes and Parks

 

NOTICE:  CPS Energy is actively removing dead fish from the shoreline as a result of low dissolved oxygen in Calaveras Lake on Tuesday, 8/13/2024. The utility will remain in close communication with Texas Parks and Wildlife and the community until the process is complete.

 

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From generation to cool recreation

For nearly four decades, San Antonio area visitors and residents have enjoyed the natural beauty of our two cooling lakes, Calaveras and Braunig.  We invite you to join the more than 250,000 visitors each year who fish and boat on the lakes. Or picnic and camp in the lakeside parks.

Braunig and Calaveras Lakes, located in southeast Bexar County, were built in the late 1960s to provide cooling water for equipment at nearby power plants. Following a record drought in San Antonio in the late 1950s and desires to conserve Edwards Aquifer water for drinking purposes, CPS Energy turned to treated wastewater from the San Antonio River to fill the two reservoirs. We were one of the first utilities in the nation to use treated sewage effluent for power plant cooling. Today, the idea continues to pay dividends. By using recycled wastewater in the lakes rather than fresh water, more than 40,000 acre feet of drinking water from the Edwards Aquifer are conserved each year.

Thousand Trails Management Services, Inc. (TTMSI) manages the operation of the parks. For more information on the parks, contact TTMSI:

  Braunig and Calaveras Lake Parks are located southeast of San Antonio:

  • Braunig Lake Park - 17500 Donop Road, Elmendorf, Texas
  • Calaveras Lake Park - 12991 Bernhardt Road