Gatesville weighs joining regional water alliance board for future planning

Gatesville is trying to get inside the room where Central Texas water planning will be decided, and the stakes run well beyond city hall. On April 28, the Gatesville City Council backed an application for the Central Texas Water Alliance board, a move that could give the city more leverage over future water projects, costs and regional decisions that may affect homes, businesses and growth in Coryell County.

City Manager Brad Hunt urged council members to apply not only for membership, but for one of the few open board seats. His argument was straightforward: Gatesville is both a local and regional supplier of potable water, and it holds major water rights through the Brazos River Authority tied to Lake Belton. Hunt said the city should have a seat as the alliance starts shaping near-term projects and long-range supply planning. He also said only a handful of the board’s 18 seats remained open, and that the alliance would likely consider how many people or communities an applicant serves.

The Central Texas Water Alliance was created in 2025 through Senate Bill 1194, with Bell County, Bell County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District and McLennan County among its initial sponsors. State law made the alliance effective immediately on May 15, 2025. The board can have between 5 and 18 members, and its structure gives early members a chance to influence how the region organizes around water reliability, conservation and development pressure.

That matters in Gatesville because the city’s own supply picture already reaches deep into the future. In earlier water planning material, Gatesville was described as holding contracts for 5,898 acre-feet of raw water in Lake Belton through the Brazos River Authority. Those contracts were said to expire between 2041 and 2050 and were projected to be renewable. Hunt has previously described the Belton Lake intake as a key part of the city’s supply system, and he has warned that water will be an asset communities compete over in the next 30 years. The Brazos Watermaster Program administers water rights in the Brazos River basin downstream of, and including, Possum Kingdom Lake, underscoring how tightly regulated the region’s water future already is.

Council member Joe Patterson voiced skepticism, warning that larger cities in the alliance, especially Waco and Temple, could eventually seek access to Gatesville water for growth or data-center-related agreements. Even so, the council approved a $1,000 application fee from the enterprise fund and agreed to pay a $5,000 annual fee only if the city is accepted. The same meeting also touched on grant work tied to the Texas General Land Office’s 2024 Disasters Local Communities Program, which allocated $97,033,950 for disaster relief, long-term recovery and infrastructure revitalization. Together, the agenda showed a city weighing immediate recovery needs while positioning itself for the next round of Central Texas water decisions.