February 2026 – The Brazos River twists through Texas like a muddy ribbon, winding its way toward the Gulf.
Many people see the Brazos and think it’s just another river winding past fields and small towns to the Gulf Coast. What many don’t realize is that it’s a source of water that flows from faucets from Lubbock to the Gulf Coast. It is dammed at several locations, creating reservoirs that store excess water during heavy rain, helping prevent flooding, and supplying water to towns, farms, factories, and power plants.
But behind the scenes, a decades-old partnership between the Brazos River Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helps make that water available for our faucets while keeping families, farms and cities safe from flooding, said Brad Brunett, BRA chief operations officer.
Looking back
Texas has always been a case of feast or famine when it comes to water. Drought in the Lone Star State almost always ends with a major flood.
Before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers added flood control reservoirs to the basin, that water moved straight to the Gulf Coast.
“In 1842, a significant flood near Navasota caused the Brazos River to expand to nearly six miles in width,” said Judi Pierce, public information officer for the BRA. “In 1913, another flood resulted in the Brazos and Colorado Rivers converging into a single, massive waterway, inundating an estimated 3,000 square miles and causing over 170 fatalities. Following another major flood in 1919, the Texas legislature declared, ‘We must find a solution to this issue.’”
As a result, the state’s first river authority was formed – the Brazos River Authority, known at the time as the Brazos River Conservation and Reclamation District. At the same time the BRA was seeking funding, the federal government was also considering what could be done to address flooding across the entire United States.
In 1936, the United States Congress passed the Flood Control Act, which altered the mission of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Up until this time, the Corps had been tasked with navigational improvements within the US. The Flood Control Act also provided the Corps with comprehensive watershed planning.
In 1941, the BRA completed Possum Kingdom Lake, a water supply reservoir, the first man-made lake built on the Brazos River. A decade later, in 1951, the Corps of Engineers completed the second reservoir on the river, Whitney Lake, a multipurpose reservoir that provided flood control and hydroelectric power.
In January 1958, the BRA reached an agreement with the Corps to purchase 113,569 acre-feet of conservation storage space at Belton Lake for about $1.6 million. Located on the Leon River, Belton Lake ultimately flows into the Brazos River near Hearne. This was the first water storage contract negotiated between the Corps and the BRA. Payments were deferred for 10 years or until the BRA negotiated contracts to distribute the state’s water stored in the reservoir, with the contract price spread over 50 years.
This agreement helped to set the stage for further contracts between the BRA and the Corps.
Today, there are three BRA water supply reservoirs and eight Corps flood control reservoirs that work together to form the BRA water supply system. The eight Corps reservoirs can temporarily store large volumes of excess water flowing into them from upstream, greatly reducing flooding downstream. At Whitney Lake, storage includes water released by BRA from its two upstream reservoirs, Possum Kingdom Lake and Lake Granbury.
Water Supply
“We began contracting for water supply storage with the Corps in the 1950s, and over the years have subsequently entered contracts for the eight Corps lakes in the BRA system: Lakes Proctor, Whitney, Aquilla, Belton, Stillhouse Hollow, Georgetown, Granger, and Somerville,” Brunett said.
All told, the BRA can store about 1.06 million acre-feet of water in these lakes. That’s enough to cover over 1 million football fields with a foot of water—an amount that can mean the difference between dry faucets and full glasses for families across Texas. To use this water, the BRA pays the Corps for the right to store it. The BRA also pays a portion of the annual operations and maintenance costs at each of the eight Corps reservoirs.
While Whitney and Belton lakes were under construction, the BRA adopted a policy of supporting annual Corps appropriations requests for projects in the basin. The BRA and the Corps presented a united front to Congress, and according to Kenneth E. Hendrickson Jr.’s book, The Waters of the Brazos, about the history of the BRA, the two agencies worked together, “When conflict arose over the location of a dam or some other factor of major importance to a project.”
In the 1950s, when Congress failed to appropriate funds for the construction of a larger dam for Lake Waco, Waco officials and the BRA vowed to help the Corps begin the project. The BRA authorized a $250,000 loan in 1957 to allow the Corps to begin work. Today, the City of Waco holds the water supply storage contract with the Corps for Lake Waco, so it is not a part of the BRA water supply system.
During the same timeframe, the BRA and the Corps worked together to complete reservoirs in a similar manner at Proctor Lake on the Leon River, Somerville Lake on Yegua Creek and Stillhouse Hollow Lake on the Lampasas River. Later, the BRA also supported the Corps in constructing Lakes Aquilla, Granger, and Georgetown.
The BRA works almost daily with the Corps, said Aaron Abel, BRA water services manager.
The Corps of Engineers is divided into districts and divisions, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. The BRA works mainly with the Fort Worth District, which operates the eight Corps reservoirs within the BRA water supply system. As the agencies are separate, the BRA doesn’t have staff at Corps reservoirs, so requests for BRA water supply releases must be coordinated.
“We’ve had a good relationship with the Corps for almost 90 years,” Abel said.
BRA Lead Hydrologist Chris Higgins added, “You almost have to.”
“Eight of the reservoirs in the BRA Water Supply System are managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We exchange reservoir data with them on a daily basis. In return, they provide us with information regarding evaporation losses and inflows, which are critical components for effectively managing our system,” Higgins said. “There is a high level of coordination between the BRA and the Corps at multiple operational levels.”
And then some
An extremely important aspect of the BRA’s partnership with the Corps goes into effect during flood operations.
When heavy rains result in significant inflows and water releases from BRA reservoirs, Possum Kingdom and Granbury, one of the first questions from the public is how the releases will affect those living downstream. Many residents of the lower Brazos basin, including those located nearest the Gulf Coast in Fort Bend and Brazoria counties, experienced record flooding in 2015 and 2016. As a result, the mention of upstream water releases was a source of additional anxiety.
Luckily, the Corps reservoirs are specifically designed to control floods. However, the dams that create BRA’s three water supply reservoirs are not designed to hold floodwater. When they fill, extra water must be released downstream to keep the dams safe. The Corps’ Whitney Lake is able to store the extra water released from Lakes Possum Kingdom and Granbury until downstream flooding subsides and it is safe to slowly release it downstream. Whitney Lake is the largest Corps reservoir. Its dam can capture and safely store more than twice the combined capacity of Possum Kingdom Lake and Lake Granbury.
There is about 3.53 million acre-feet of storage available in Corps reservoirs for flood waters.
The BRA is also responsible for certain repairs and improvements to Corps dams, as those are a function of maintaining the dam for water supply.
In addition to its reservoir operations, the Corps is the federal agency responsible for granting permits for many projects that affect the environment. For example, to build a new reservoir, the BRA must first obtain a special permit from the Corps. The BRA is currently working through the permitting process for a planned new water supply reservoir, the Allens Creek Reservoir, which will store extra water for use during dry times in the lower Brazos basin.
The work of the Brazos River Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues, mostly unseen, but always essential. This network of reservoirs, dams, and dedicated people has helped shape life in the basin, and it will continue to do so for generations to come.