William Harris Reservoir

Harris Reservoir, also known as William Harris Reservoir, is eight miles northwest of Angleton in the San Jacinto-Brazos coastal basin in Brazoria County (at 29°15' N, 95°32' W). The reservoir was named for early settler William Harris, who was granted land in what is now Brazoria County in 1824. Harris Reservoir is an off-channel project between the Brazos River and Oyster Creek, owned and operated by the Dow Chemical Company as an industrial water supply for several plants near Freeport. Construction of the project, engineered by Lockwood and Andrews, was completed in July 1947. The reservoir has a normal capacity of 12,000 acre-feet and a surface area of 1,663 acres at normal maximum water surface elevation of forty-three feet above mean sea level. Water is obtained for the reservoir by pumping from the Brazos River and is released from the reservoir by gravity flow to Oyster Creek. From there it is distributed by canal for use at the industrial plants.