City of Amarillo details possible plans for pumping water from Lake Lawrence

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The city’s Public Works Department says it’s working with TxDOT to come up with alternative methods of pumping out flood water from Lake Lawrence.

At an Office of Emergency Management news conference earlier today, officials say the plan is to install two above-ground pumps at Lake Lawrence to bring water levels down below 100%. Right now, the lake is at or above capacity.

“These are high horsepower pumps, this will be to expedite the pumping from that lake. Now it takes a lot of engineering to do that, this morning we had a table full of engineers and both with TxDOT, the city of Amarillo, and others to devise a way to do that,” said Donny Hooper, director of Public Works.

Hooper says this process will include laying pipelines above grounds, affecting traffic, interstate travel, and off-ramps. Hooper says it’s extremely necessary.

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