CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — In an announcement made by Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni on Thursday, the Corpus Christi Water District's combined water level has fallen below 30%. It’s the first time it's fallen this low since 2015.
Zanoni said the official reading was 29.9% of combined water levels from Lake Corpus Christi and the Choke Canyon Reservoir. Stage one took affect when the water level fell below 40%. Stage two begins at 30% and stage three begins at 20%.
Corpus Christi has been in a drought officially since June 14, 2022 when stage one water restrictionswere put in place. Those restrictions asked for people to conserve water and only allow residential water customers to water their lawn and plants once a week.
It’s not just Corpus Christi impacted as the water district supplies water to customers in seven counties and over half a million customers.
Zanoni said the last help the water system has gotten was when the Mary Rhodes Pipeline Phase Two went in motion in the early 90's.
“It’s been three decades since we’ve added any water to our distribution system. Which for a growing region is not acceptable, I would say," he said.
The decision to enact stage two drought restrictions is up to Zanoni and he wants to hold off for a couple reasons. One is to not cause panic among residents and two, the National Weather Service is confident that some heavy rain is on the way from Sunday to Thursday. It could produce 2.5 to 3 inches of rain.
City staff and the National Weather Service meet on a weekly basis and sometimes more often. The rain must fall northwest of the city to impact the watershed. Zanoni said the hope is at the minimum the water level will stay at 29.9% after this rain.
“The notion is this, that this first weather system will help to prepare the ground, it’ll help to prep the ground, get the ground saturated. And then, if a second rain event comes in next Friday, Saturday, potentially Sunday that will help to elevate the levels in our reservoirs.”
If those rain events don’t pan out, Zanoni said the city will then go to stage two drought restrictions.
Those restrictions include residential customers only allowed to water their lawns once every other week. Golf courses would be limited to watering greens and tee boxes every other week if they use city water. They would not be allowed to water fairways with potable water.
Councilwoman Sylvia Campos said the burden of conservation should fall more on the industrial water users.
“Things need to change. Now ,when we’re being asked to cut back as residents we should also be demanding heavy water users to cut back because seriously, we only use about 20% and I'm being conservative about that,” she said.
According to the Drought Contingency Plan, restrictions would also be placed on businesses that use over 6,000 gallons a day.
The plan states that in stage two the goal is to reduce water use by 20%. To deter excessive use of water, the city manager has the power to implement a surcharge on water bills up to 100% for residential users. Businesses could also be issued a surcharge. Those businesses that use over 100,000 gallons a day would have to cut back to using 80% of their usual usage.
While the current water source is not drought-proof, the city has been pursuing other sources of water, primarily seawater desalination. Zanoni said the city is finally ready to move forward on a 30 million gallons a day facility.
“Next week at city council, we are recommending pathway forward for the construction of a seawater desalination plant. The City Council selected the site of the inner harbor,” he said.
Zanoni said there will be eight action items on the agenda relating to construction, funding and power of a desalination facility.
"We applied for a low interest loan from the state agency known as the Texas Water Development Board. We beat out over 80 other applicants to save tax payer, rate payer monies here. So, part of the action next week is to take the first loan amount of $211 million to apply for additional loan amount to fully fund the construction," Zanoni said.
Previously, Zanoni had been working with the Port of Corpus Christi for a City-Port collaboration for a desalination plant on Harbor Island. That still has not been ruled out. Both entities are still working together and Zanoni said the city may be asking for financial support from the Port to build the inner harbor facility.
If City Council chooses to move forward with desalination, Zanoni said it could be operational in 2027.
In the meantime the city continues to look at other sources. One of those sources is the Evangeline Aquifer in the Sinton area. Zanoni said they had a conversation with the owner of the aquifer on Wednesday.
"We are working on, with them, a plan for close to 30 million gallons, over a series of years, of water that would come from that aquifer," Zanoni said.
Another option being considered is the method of reusing water. Zanoni said the city discharges around 30 millions of water a day that can be treated and reused.
Lastly, underground water storage is an option to collect water during rain events. Zanoni said many larger cities use this method to draw from during times of drought.
Daily water level data can be found on the city website here.
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