Corpus Christi Projects Emergency Water Restrictions In September; Everyone Busy Drilling More Wells

Without a shift in weather patterns, the City of Corpus Christi expects to enact emergency restrictions on water use in September, according to draft documents slated for release at a City Council meeting on Tuesday morning. The 43-page draft presentation, provided to Inside Climate News by a source close to Corpus Christi’s water department, describes plans to mandate 25 percent cuts for all of its water customers, including nearly 500,000 people in the Coastal Bend region of Texas, as well as one of the state’s leading petrochemical and refinery hubs.

The order to curtail water would be an unprecedented conservation measure, meant to draw out the timeline to depletion of the region’s reservoirs, which could occur within the next year. “We’re running out of water,” said U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, a Republican who represents the region, in comments to Energy Secretary Chris Wright during a budget hearing last week in Washington, D.C. “I want to just remind you of that.”

City leaders previously said emergency water curtailment could begin as soon as May, then pushed that date to October after Gov. Greg Abbott issued orders that waived pumping limitations and expedited permits for Corpus Christi’s newly planned wellfields. Those wells, however, are producing less than expected, Zanoni said. If reservoirs dry up, Corpus Christi’s wells might be able to keep water flowing to most toilets, sinks and showers, but not to the multi-billion-dollar complexes operated by energy giants like ExxonMobil, Valero, Occidental Chemical, Citgo and Flint Hills Resources, which collectively account for more than half of the region’s water consumption.

EDIT

Without a long term solution to this crisis in sight, cities, towns, refineries and chemical plants around Corpus Christi are urgently drilling their own wells. Even the region’s two main hospital districts are pursuing plans to drill wells, according to Roland Barrera, a member of the Corpus Christi City Council since 2019. “Isn’t that crazy?” said Barrera, 59, the owner of an employee benefits and life insurance company. “They’re trying to figure it out.” Officials acknowledge that local aquifers only offer a temporary solution. Emergency projects propose to pump up to 14 times what state water plans consider a sustainable rate in Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, and no entity exists to regulate groundwater. The region’s largest water consumer, a five-year-old plastics plant operated by Exxon and the Saudi Basic Industries Corp., also drilled test wells recently but struck salty water, Inside Climate News reported on April 7.

Ed. - Emphasis added.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20042026/corpus-christi-projects-september-emergency-water-restrictions/