diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/pom.xml b/google-cloud-bigtable/pom.xml
index df8450c8c1..1342c1dd47 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/pom.xml
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/pom.xml
@@ -15,9 +15,6 @@
     <version>1.16.1-SNAPSHOT</version><!-- {x-version-update:google-cloud-bigtable:current} -->
   </parent>
   <properties>
-    <!-- The version that will be embedded in the published jar via maven-resources-plugin -->
-    <java-bigtable.version>1.16.1-SNAPSHOT</java-bigtable.version><!-- {x-version-update:google-cloud-bigtable:current} -->
-
     <site.installationModule>google-cloud-bigtable</site.installationModule>
 
     <!-- Enable the ability to skip unit tests and only run integration tests,
@@ -386,36 +383,7 @@
   </profiles>
 
   <build>
-    <resources>
-      <resource>
-        <directory>src/main/templates</directory>
-        <includes>
-          <include>**/*.java</include>
-        </includes>
-        <filtering>true</filtering>
-        <targetPath>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/java</targetPath>
-      </resource>
-    </resources>
     <plugins>
-      <plugin>
-        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
-        <artifactId>build-helper-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>3.2.0</version>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>add-source</id>
-            <phase>generate-sources</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>add-source</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <sources>
-                <source>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/java/</source>
-              </sources>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
-      </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-enforcer-plugin</artifactId>
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/templates/com/google/cloud/bigtable/Version.java b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/GoogleUtils.java
similarity index 68%
rename from google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/templates/com/google/cloud/bigtable/Version.java
rename to google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/GoogleUtils.java
index 340cec1348..a70a712298 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/templates/com/google/cloud/bigtable/Version.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/GoogleUtils.java
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@
 
 import com.google.api.core.InternalApi;
 
+/** Utility to get the current version of the Bigtable client. */
 @InternalApi("For internal use only")
-public final class Version {
-  // The released version, populated by maven.
-  public static String VERSION="${java-bigtable.version}";
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+// Note: this file MUST be named GoogleUtils.java so that it can be picked up by releasetool
+public class GoogleUtils {
+  public static final String BIGTABLE_CLIENT_VERSION =
+      "1.16.1-SNAPSHOT"; // {x-version-update:google-cloud-bigtable:current}
+}
diff --git a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/EnhancedBigtableStubSettings.java b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/EnhancedBigtableStubSettings.java
index 9b9c71ea8c..e23292f7ab 100644
--- a/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/EnhancedBigtableStubSettings.java
+++ b/google-cloud-bigtable/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/bigtable/data/v2/stub/EnhancedBigtableStubSettings.java
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 import com.google.api.gax.rpc.StubSettings;
 import com.google.api.gax.rpc.TransportChannelProvider;
 import com.google.api.gax.rpc.UnaryCallSettings;
-import com.google.cloud.bigtable.Version;
+import com.google.cloud.bigtable.GoogleUtils;
 import com.google.cloud.bigtable.data.v2.models.ConditionalRowMutation;
 import com.google.cloud.bigtable.data.v2.models.KeyOffset;
 import com.google.cloud.bigtable.data.v2.models.Query;
@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@ private Builder() {
               .putAll(
                   BigtableStubSettings.defaultApiClientHeaderProviderBuilder().build().getHeaders())
               // GrpcHeaderInterceptor treats the `user-agent` as a magic string
-              .put("user-agent", "bigtable-java/" + Version.VERSION)
+              .put("user-agent", "bigtable-java/" + GoogleUtils.BIGTABLE_CLIENT_VERSION)
               .build();
       setInternalHeaderProvider(FixedHeaderProvider.create(headers));