CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — At Corpus Christi City Council on Tuesday, City Manager Peter Zanoni said there will be increased enforcement of stage one drought restrictions.
Corpus Christi faces quite the conundrum. On one hand, the extreme dry conditions makes the city vulnerable to more fires. But the city has water restrictions in place that are now going to be enforced.
“Now, it’s very hard to keep things going green and it’s been very hot in all this heat waves," Pablo Rangel said, a Corpus Christi resident. "Even trying to take out my pets, even if I need to work out I have to work out very late."
The heat has everyone adjusting their lifestyle. Especially since the city has been put in stage one drought restrictions a month and a half ago.
Part of that plan, is to enforce that people water their property only once a week on the day their trash is collected. That enforcement will begin Monday.
“I was out in the community biking on Sunday and me and my team members noticed lots of violations," Zanoni said at last Tuesday's city council meeting. "Lots of watering that was taking place that shouldn’t be happening on a Sunday.”
Zanoni added that the rainfall the city usually sees in July has only been a total of a half an inch. The city now has weekly meetings with the National Weather Service as weather conditions worsen.
Rangel knows how difficult drought restrictions could be on lifestyles.
“I used to live in Arizona and I remember they used to enforce those kind of things," he said. "And the water pressure was bad, you could shower only at nights. So, I live through that before and it’s not fun you know?”
Rangel isn’t sure enforcement is going to go well.
“Unless there is someone patrolling all the time," said Rangel. "I even see it with my neighbors. I think we’re only supposed to water on Thursday and I see people watering every day. So, it’s going to be tough and I know people are going to be mad.”
Another resident, Jose Moreno, said enforcement should have already been underway, if conditions are so bad.
“Not everybody follows the rules to begin with," Moreno said. "And those that do…hopefully more people will do it now. But it should have been done, I think, the beginning of the summer.”
Zanoni told city council what enforcement would look like.
“Everybody has to do their part," he said. "And so, that’s what happens is that we go out try to talk to the customer, we take evidence that they are violating the restriction and then they’re issued a citation.”
If caught watering your property during a prohibited time you could face a fine up to $500.
Zanoni also announced the city may move to stage two drought restrictions in August.
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