Council OKs Belhouse easement for one-way pipeline linking lakes

By Michele Weisman

The Belton Journal

The Belton City Council approved an agreement with the Brazos River Authority last week that secures an easement for the Belhouse Pipeline Project.

The pipeline will move water from Belton Lake to Stillhouse Hollow and will provide water to Austin’s northern suburbs.

BRA is a governmental entity responsible for developing, managing and protecting the water resources of the Brazos River Basin in Texas. Its activities include operating reservoirs and dams, managing water supplies for municipalities, agriculture, and industry, and providing wastewater services.

The Authority is moving forward with the long-planned Belhouse water transmission project. “Construction is projected to begin in 2029, and it is anticipated to take about three years to complete,” Sam Listi, Belton’s city manager, said in a statement to Council. “BRA conducted a Feasibility Study on six alternate routes in 2020.”

The selected route begins in Belton west of the Corps of Engineers’ office and Dead Fish Grill, near FM 439 and FM 2271, and extends southward crossing Sparta Road near Wheat Road. The Project is designed to improve future drought resilience by transferring water from Belton Lake to Stillhouse Hollow, then to Lake Georgetown. A pipeline linking Stillhouse and Lake Georgetown is already operational.

The Belhouse Project will include a pump station near Belton Lake, and a six-mile pipeline extending through west Belton and crossing Interstate-14, ending at Stillhouse Hollow in the vicinity of FM 1670.

“The BRA requires a 50-feet of permanent easement for its 48-inch water transmission line, and the agency has the authority of eminent domain, meaning it could acquire the property for this public purpose even if a landowner objects,” Listi added. “While Belton is not leading or managing the project, we have worked to protect local interests through development of an agreement that will grant BRA an easement.”

In Belton, the pipeline will extend about 5,500 feet — just over one mile — between the south side of the Corps of Engineers’ Lakeview Park and Sparta Road. In this area the City owns 200 feet of future street right-of-way between Lakeview Park and Yturria, and 150 feet between Yturria and Sparta Road, according to Listi.

Earlier this month, the Brazos River Authority Board authorized the agreement between BRA and Belton.

“The permitting and design phase for the project began in May of this year,” Brad Brunett, chief operations officer for the Authority, told the Belton Journal. “Design for both the intake structure and pipeline are under way by the Walker Partners engineering team and they are expected to be complete in early 2026.”

“Coordination with the US Army Corps of Engineers is also in progress,” Brunett said. The Corps owns both Bell County lakes. He said the pipeline route that was presented at a public hearing in 2023 will be pursued, with some minor deviations as a result of recent development.

The pipeline will allow water to flow from Belton Lake to Stillhouse to provide water for drought-related needs in Austin’s booming northern suburbs. “As populations in the Georgetown and Round Rock areas grow, there won’t be enough water for Brazos River Authority customers served by Lake Georgetown,” Brunett said. “Lake Georgetown is small — Stillhouse is about 6 times larger than Georgetown, and Belton Lake is about 14 times larger,” he said. “During dry times, there simply is not enough water in Lake Georgetown to meet the needs.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Georgetown is one of the fastest growing cities in America, and its population of 104,000 is expected to double in less than seven years. The Brazos River Authority has been pumping water from Stillhouse to Lake Georgetown for years, but the potential amount of water being moved will soon increase, Brunett said.

A whopping 20 billion gallons of water every year could be piped from Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir to Lake Georgetown in the next few years, and up to 9.8 billion gallons could be moved annually from Belton Lake to Stillhouse by the Belhouse pipeline.

“We first started pumping in 2006, and we added multiple pumps in 2011,” Brunett said. “We have four pumps capable of pumping 42 million gallons a day. We are replacing those with four higher-capacity pumps that can move 56 million gallons per day. There will still be one pipeline, but we will be able to move more water.”

“We are currently in the pump design phase, and it will be two or three years before they are operational,” he said. Once complete, they will have the capacity to transfer about 61,000-acre-feet — 19.88 billion gallons — from Stillhouse to Georgetown annually.

The amount of water actually transferred is related directly to ongoing drought conditions. “The pumps don’t run constantly,” Brunett said. “It all depends on the weather and how much natural runoff goes into Lake Georgetown. In 2016, the pumps didn’t run at all. But, in 2022, they ran most of the year.”

Brunett said the water lines from Belton Lake to Stillhouse and from Stillhouse to Lake Georgetown will be one-way. In other words, water cannot be pumped in reverse to transfer water into Belton Lake.

While the Brazos River Authority has deemed the pipeline solution as the best option for getting water to where it is needed, BRA has considered other options. “We are always looking for new water supply sources,” he said. “We have considered new reservoirs in the Little River watershed and in Milam County, but those were met with a lot of opposition from local residents so those options are no longer in our water plan.”

“All of the major rivers in Williamson and Bell counties already have reservoirs, and there likely isn’t enough water to justify building new reservoirs on those rivers,” Brunett said. “The San Gabriel River has Lake Georgetown and Lake Granger, the Leon River has Belton Lake and Lake Proctor, and the Lampasas has Stillhouse.”

“Another option we have looked at is raising the Lake Georgetown dam so the lake could hold more water. But, new development has gone in and that option is no longer on the table.”

According to Brunett, Belton Lake serves many water districts and municipalities. One of the largest customers is Belton-based 439 Water Supply, which provides water to Killeen, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove and parts of Fort Hood. The lake also provides water to Bluebonnet Water Supply, Belton, Coryell Water Supply, Fort Gates, Gatesville, The Grove Water Supply and others.

Although Temple pulls its water from the Leon River below the Belton Lake dam, water must be released from the lake to meet the city’s water needs, Burnett said.

Bell County Judge David Blackburn said BRA contracts in place give water customers in the Georgetown area rights to water from Stillhouse. “It is my understanding that current contracts afford the customers to our south the rights to the water,” Blackburn said. “It is also my understanding that no current system water rights holder will be impacted by a pipeline connecting Belton Lake and Stillhouse.”

The Belhouse Drought Preparedness Project — the official name of the water transport system linking Belton Lake to Stillhouse Hollow — has been planned for years to provide access to water where it is needed. It is designed to delay the need for the development of additional new sources of water, including the building of new reservoirs, which could cost millions, if not billions of dollars.