Nueces River flows into Lake Corpus Christi, while the Frio and Atascosa rivers flow into Choke Canyon.
Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon supply most of the city of Corpus Christi’s water supply, which serves more than 500,000 customers in 20 cities across seven of the Coastal Bend region’s counties: Nueces, Aransas, Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Live Oak, and San Patricio.
But growth in Corpus Christi, alone, has driven water consumption rates up, putting a strain on that supply.
Last year, more than 14,000 new residential accounts were opened last year. New accounts are opened when someone moves into a new home, but it’s also considered a new account when someone shuts off their service at one address and gets service at a new location.
The Coastal Bend relies so much on the lakes to provide us water for everyday usage -- cooking, washing dishes, bathing, laundry, keeping lawns healthy and our cars spotless.
According to the city, an average household in the Coastal Bend uses an average of 6,000 gallons a month.
Basically, we use A LOT of water.
Adding to the residential consumption is the boom of commercial growth in our city.
For example, the city supplies water to big industries in San Patricio county including Gulf Coast Growth Ventures in Gregory, and Steel Dynamics in Sinton.
Gulf Coast Growth Ventures became operational this year, and uses 15 million gallons of water a day. Steel Dynamics uses 2 million-3 million gallons of water a day.
