By Denis Qualls, Senior Engineer; Varghese Abraham, Engineer Assistant; Larry Brown, Engineer (Dallas Water Utilities); and Ken Choffel, Senior Project Manager; Cory Shockley, Senior Hydrologist; Sumant Mallavaram; Ted Shannon, Water Resources Engineer (HDR Engineering)

Abstract: Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) supplies drinking water for a service population of 2.3 million people for the City of Dallas and 27 municipalities. DWU currently obtains water from five major water supply reservoirs, which deliver water to three water treatment plants. An additional reservoir, Lake Fork Reservoir, was connected to the DWU system in 2009, with the new pipeline and pump station currently under testing. DWU is partnering with the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD - the major water supplier to the City of Fort Worth) on a study to evaluate options for obtaining water from an additional major reservoir, Lake Palestine, by 2015. To evaluate the reliability of this water source and associated operating agreements with TRWD, DWU selected RiverWare as the platform to revise its current simulation model of its water supply system. Future applications of this model include: annual forecasting; optimization of reservoir operating rules; evaluation of impacts from potential climate change including potential changes in reservoir firm yields; and other water planning needs.