Nov. 13, 2026 - The Brazos River Authority Board of Directors took additional steps to further water security for the Brazos River Basin as it advances plans for a new pumped storage water supply reservoir in Austin County.
At its regularly scheduled meeting Nov. 10, 2026, the Board approved a professional services contract with Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, Inc. to support development of the Allens Creek Reservoir project near the confluence of Allens Creek with the Brazos River. Once complete, the reservoir, located just north of the town of Wallis, is estimated to provide an annual firm water supply of nearly 100,000 acre-feet to support current and projected growth in the Brazos River Basin, enough to serve about 400,000 families.
The project is on schedule and under budget, said BRA Program Manager Rachel Lane.
Unlike reservoirs such as Possum Kingdom, Granbury, and Whitney, the Allens Creek Reservoir will not involve damming the Brazos River. The reservoir will be constructed just off the Brazos River near Allens Creek, the tributary that gives it its name. It will then be filled and refilled by pumps in an intake structure located near the river. The plan is to pump water from the Brazos River for storage when river flows are adequate. That water would then be available to supply downstream customers when needed.
Field crews have been on site for the past few months where the proposed reservoir is to be located, looking into potential environmental and cultural resources as well as floodplain impacts and meeting with local leaders, said Scott Burch, project manager for GFT Infrastructure, the BRA’s technical team on the project. A boundary survey has been completed of the BRA property; they’ve updated the topographic survey and done some soil exploration, he said.
“We have found some efficiencies and found some ways to leverage technology to really help us accelerate the project,” Burch said.
In Texas, to build a reservoir, generally you must have three things: the property, the water right permit, and a 404 permit from the federal government's U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The BRA has already secured the first two requirements and is working to get the proper permits before construction begins.
Part of the permitting process is explaining to the Corps why the BRA is coming to them for a permit and what it's trying to solve, said Cory Shockley, project manager with HDR Engineering, another group working with the BRA on the project.
“The purpose, I've said before, it seems pretty obvious, we’re trying to develop water supply for the basin to meet future wholesale contractual demand and to provide storage in the lower basin to support efficiency in system operations,” Shockley said. “You have to explain to the Corps why that’s needed.”
“If somebody came to the BRA today and said, ‘I need water.’ They would say, ‘Here’s the list of people that also want water, there’s no water to give.’ So we have to be able to explain that to the Corps that when we bring a new project online, what are the policies and procedures in place that allow that water to go out to future customers. So, we’re working on that.”
The team is reviewing everyone who has requested long-term water contracts, historical water use for a baseline, demand projections, existing supplies, and regional and local planning documents, and conducting a needs analysis, he said. Previous estimates put the need at about 150,000 acre-feet of water for potential lower basin customers, but those numbers need updating to ensure they're as current as possible, he said.
Part of the work goes into explaining that a large portion of the Brazos River Basin, roughly 9,000 square miles of drainage area, is uncontrolled by a large reservoir, Shockley said. There is no large dam to catch that rainwater that currently just flows to the coast.
“But with Allens Creek on the map, all of a sudden it creates a significant amount of storage in the lower basin to make better use of this. And to me, this is one of the key aspects of Allens Creek and really what makes the purpose and need so key is that ability to store water in the lower basin closer to those demands that can take advantage of that roughly 9,000 square miles of uncontrolled drainage area,” Shockley said.
The BRA will apply for $50 million in financing for the project from the Texas Water Development Board’s State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) Program. The organization applied last year; however, the TWDB only funded 10 of the 23 projects that were submitted, said Michele Giroir, BRA chief financial officer.
The TWDB SWIFT Program provides funding for political subdivisions for projects that are in the State Water Plan. Using SWIFT financing of $50 million in deferred loans, it is estimated that the BRA will save up to $15 million in interest compared with similar open-market borrowing over the term of the debt.
General Manager/CEO David Collinsworth said any opportunity to receive grants and funding will help lessen the impact on rate payers.
“We set our rates every year moving forward to do this project with no federal or no state appropriations or assistance,” Collinsworth said. “We’re self-supportive, and we can do this project on our own. But our focus is on doing it as cheaply as we possibly can for our rate payers. So, any opportunity we have we’ll take advantage of it.”
For more, listen to our podcast episode on Allens Creek Reservoir.
Also at the Board meeting, two projects were approved to improve the low-flow facilities at Possum Kingdom Lake and Lake Limestone.
The Board authorized amendments to the existing professional services agreement with GFT Infrastructure, Inc. to provide engineering services for Possum Kingdom Lake’s Morris Sheppard Dam flow control gate replacement project for up to $200,000.
It takes a multitude of parts to make the Morris Sheppard Dam operate efficiently, said Mike McClendon, BRA's chief projects officer. The construction part of this project will be performed in-house using Possum Kingdom’s Reservoir System Maintenance Unit (RSMU) personnel, McClendon said.
For the Lake Limestone Sterling C. Robertson Dam, the board executed a roughly $1 million contract with Schnabel Engineering for preliminary engineering services for the low-flow facility modification and improvements project.
The project is in response to recent inspections identifying the need to assess and update the facilities for continued operational resiliency and supports our mission and strategic goals, said Blake Kettler, BRA's chief planning officer. Low-flow releases are necessary for environmental flows, water supply releases, and dewatering the low-flow facilities.
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For any additional questions, don’t hesitate to email us at information@brazos.org .