Docks at Lake Tyler Marina rest partially underwater after recent heavy rain. (Victor Texcucano/Staff)

Though droughts often afflict the lakes of East Texas, recent rainfall has created an opposite problem — Lakes Tyler, Tyler East and Palestine are now significantly above their spillway capacity.

Water is so high, the city of Tyler has now closed boat ramps at Lake Tyler and Lake Tyler East.

“We’ve never closed (Lake Tyler), but 2011 was the last time drought has had a negative effect on the ramps,” said Director of Utilities and Public Works Greg Morgan. “It was about 7 1/2 feet low then. That was the last severe drought.”

He said that on Monday night, water levels were about 0.2 feet over the spillway, a structure designed to allow the controlled release of flood waters from a dam downstream.

But as of Tuesday morning, residual flow had brought lake levels to 376.81 feet, 1.31 feet over the spillway. This brings many dangers, leading his office to close the boat ramps at Lake Tyler and Lake Tyler East.

“There is a danger of debris, which can be a boating hazard,” Morgan said. “It can also cause erosion in areas that are not normal under water. That causes bank deterioration on things like retaining walls, like at the Hill Creek Park.”

As the rain slows, though, the lake levels are beginning to return to normal.

“We’re beginning to see a slowdown of water coming into the lake,” he said. “The spillway will continue to discharge until the water levels are down.”

Lake Palestine is at approximately 347 feet Mean Sea Level, according to General Manager of the Upper Neches River Management Water Authority Monty Shank. That is two feet above their spillway.

“We’re having to discharge it down the river,” but it has not affected boating, he said.

“That’s nothing abnormal,” he said. “I will say that people who have boats in boathouses around the lake need to make sure they’re elevated, so they won’t float within the boathouse or slip their ties.”

Morgan says that as water flows downstream and soaks into the ground, water levels will fall back to normal.

“These are just proactive steps,” he said. “If the weather keeps like it is now, we ought to be reopening the boat ramps by this weekend, or maybe sooner.”