Clear Texas Lakes

Our Initiative 

Founded in 2020 and proud Texan By Nature Partner , Clear Texas Lakes (CTL) is dedicated to the continuous removal of trash and other marine debris from Texas Lake shorelines improving environmental health while reducing the microplastics and other harmful items on over 1,000 miles of Texas Lake shorelines.
Location: CTL serves the Trinity River Basin area. Our five-year footprint spans the shorelines of Lewisville Lake, Lavon Lake, Grapevine Lake, Lake Ray Roberts, and Lake Texoma.
Process: Intense clean-up, install ongoing and regular clean-up program. Rinse and repeat at each lake.
Project Phase: CTL has completed 65% of the intense clean-up effort at Lewisville Lake and 70% at Grapevine Lake. Intense clean-up started up at Lake Texoma in late November 2023. A regular maintenance program has been implemented at both Lake Lewisville and Grapevine Lake. Expansion to all five lakes is planned over the next 5 years.
Water Benefits & Duration of Benefits: Macro and micro plastics, fishing line, broken glass, etc. and various other marine debris are prevalent in and around North Texas Lakes. Clearing these items from the hard-to-reach places and shorelines creates a cleaner and safer environment where wildlife and humans can flourish. CTL records the number of pounds and types of items collected during each cleanup event and monitors the effectiveness of cleanup efforts on return visits to specific areas.
Additional Benefits:
● People: Lewisville Lake alone draws more than 3 million people annually
● Volunteer Opportunities: 500+ community volunteers in 2022-23
● Wildlife: Removal of microplastics and other marine debris creates cleaner waterways, improves habitat, and decreases entanglement and ingestion events for all species
● Education/Outreach: Speaking engagements, magazine spotlights, community events, marketing video, field trips, cleanups, encouraging good stewardship through sustainable behaviors/actions
● Improved Ecosystems and Environmental Health: Rid lake shorelines of dangerous Styrofoam, fishing line, plastics and other toxins that can be harmful to wildlife and humans
With a focus on education and collaboration with stakeholders including private businesses, schools, volunteer organizations, government entities and more, CTL is having a significant impact. In 2022/2023 CTL tracked and disposed of over 150,000 pounds of trash from Lewisville Lake, Grapevine Lake, and Lake Texoma.  

Predicted outcome

Marine debris like macro and microplastics, Styrofoam, fishing line, broken glass, and various other items prevalent on our Texas Lakes, create a harmful environment for both humans and wildlife.  The Clear Texas Lakes initiative (funded in part by Microsoft and Cabella's OutDoor Fund and others) implements regular, sustainable maintenance programs at North Texas Lakes in collaboration with the community, and utilizes a specialized pontoon boat and other equipment to remove items from the shoreline in hard-to-reach places. From DFW Metroplex to the Oklahoma border and over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Clear Texas Lakes has reclaimed over 150,000 pounds of marine debris/litter since 2022.  

Our five-year footprint spans Lewisville Lake, Lavon Lake, Grapevine Lake and Lake Ray Roberts.  We estimate each lake will take approximately one year for the intense clean-up and approximately three months to establish and implement a regular maintenance schedule.

Measurable outcome

Completion of the intense clean-up at the four major lakes served by the Army Corp of Engineers (Lewisville Lake, Lavon Lake, Grapevine Lake and Lake Ray Roberts) with a regular maintenance schedule deployed at each lake served by year end 2028 (approximately 1720 miles of shoreline).  

We track our trash collection efforts while performing intense clean-up and regular maintenance activities.  For example, on one of our maintenance excursions we targeted a high traffic area on one section on Lewisville Lake approximately one mile in length.  This effort yielded 15–50-gallon trash bags with an average of 40 pounds per bag upon initial clean-up. Three months later the cleanup effort for that same stretch yielded only 1-40-pound trash bag.  We track each area covered separately by counting the number of bags filled by type (plastics, aluminum, styrofoam, etc). We've also installed trash cans in popular hiking areas with high trash accumulation encouraging patrons to dispose of their trash in a manner that reduces the effort required for cleanup and disposal. 

In 2022 to-date, Clear Texas lakes has collected and disposed of approximately 42,500 lbs. of trash from Lewisville Lake alone.  This lake has 233 miles of shoreline to cover has been our primary focus completing 35 percent of the deep dive cleanup effort and implementation of a regular trash removal program.  

                                                                      We look forward to expanding our efforts to other North Texas Lakes soon!