CLARIFICATION (2:57 p.m. Sept. 5): The city of Alice received a $7 million loan from the Texas Water Development Board, not a grant as the headline previously stated. Of that $7 million, however, the city could see $2 million of that debt forgiven.
ORIGINAL:
The city of Alice has been working to develop a second source of water that would be uninterrupted and drought-resistant. Alice currently gets its water from Lake Corpus Christi.
Toward that end, the Texas Water Development Board on Friday approved the city's request for $7 million for a groundwater project.
The money will fund the final phase of that project, which includes a 2,000 ft. deep well. The next step would be a review and permitting by the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality.
“Once those things get approved, then a plant can be built to treat the brackish water that's coming out,” said Alice City Manager Michael Esparza. “So we're hoping that in the first quarter of 2024 we'll actually be producing and treating the water.”
The well will be an alternate, second source of water, but in times of drought, it can be a primary source so they don't have to draw as much water from the lake.
That will leave more water available for Corpus Christi, and other cities that rely on it.
