Years of drought has Corpus Christi, Texas, wrestling with water crisis

In South Texas, a years-long drought has so severely depleted Corpus Christi’s water supplies that the city is scrambling to avoid a shortage that could force residents into painful budget cuts and hobble refineries and petrochemical plants in a major energy port.

Experts said the city did not expect such a severe drought and new reliable water sources did not arrive as expected. These problems arose when the city increased its water sales to large industrial customers.

“We just haven’t kept pace with water supply and water infrastructure the way we should have. And this is decades in the making,” said Peter Zanoni, city manager since 2019.

Corpus Christi, a city of about 317,000 that also supplies water to neighboring counties, is closely tied to its oil and gas industry. The region manufactures basic necessities like fuel and steel and ships them around the world.

Zanoni said the city is very unlikely to run out of water, but without significant rainfall or new sources, residents could face forced budget cuts and the industry may have to make do with less. At a time when the war in Iran is already driving up gas prices, the shortage is hitting a region that produces 5 percent of the United States’ gasoline supply.

Droughts are common, but this one has lasted for most of the past seven years. Key reservoirs are at their lowest levels ever. The quickest solution is different weather.

“We’re actively praying for a hurricane,” former City Councilman David Loeb said, half-joking. Loeb doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, but after battling previous droughts during his time on the council, he’s feeling the lack of rain sorely.

The drought is not expected to ease by summer, forcing authorities to scramble to draw more groundwater to avoid an emergency.

After the last drought in the early 2010s, the city approved a pipeline expansion to carry more water from the Colorado River and encouraged conservation. In the years that followed, water consumption actually decreased. The city, seeing an opportunity, added a petrochemical plant and a steel mill to its long list of industrial clients.

City officials had factored drought into their calculations — but not this type of drought, Zanoni said. This was especially hard because the tanks never fully refilled after the last one.

And it happened at the wrong time.

After many years, the pipeline expansion finally reached full capacity only last year. Meanwhile, discussions about building a desalination plant that would remove salt from seawater — a potentially drought-resistant solution recommended in 2016 — have stalled amid concerns about costs of up to $1.3 billion and environmental impact.

“If the then city council had followed through on this decision, we could have already put this plant into operation,” Zanoni said.

Corpus Christi followed its long-established plan to reduce water consumption. Stage 1 seeks voluntary actions from citizens, such as taking shorter showers and limiting how often they can water. Currently, the city is in Stage 3, which means a pause in many outdoor water uses.

Many residents are unhappy about not being able to water their lawns, seeing their bills rise significantly and risking fines, said Isabel Araiza, co-founder of a grassroots group active on water issues. Some don’t think the industry will be asked to share the pain, she said.

The city’s drought plan allows residents and businesses to be charged extra if they use a lot of water. But large industries, which Zanoni said consume up to 60 percent of the city’s water, may choose to pay a permanent surcharge to avoid the possibility of having to add a much higher fee during times of drought.

Araiza considers it a bad system. Once industry pays the extra, she says, it no longer has an incentive to save water.

The city defended the system, saying in a statement that the industry does not have “water conservation leeway” or forced reductions. The release said the trade surcharges raised $6 million annually.

It’s wrong to suggest the industry isn’t helping, said Bob Paulison, executive director of the Coastal Bend Industry Association. Businesses have stopped landscaping, recycled water to meet their essential cooling needs and are looking for alternative water sources, he said.

The city has not yet imposed additional fees on anyone.

But Zanoni said water rates could eventually double as the city invests about $1 billion in infrastructure — costs that some say will disproportionately benefit industry and make residents’ lives more expensive.

The city is in a water emergency with 180 days before the water supply can meet demand. Officials considered different scenarios for getting new water and easing the drought, and said an emergency could occur as early as May, as late as October, or not at all.

The city has tapped millions of gallons of new groundwater and hopes to get even more.

The biggest unknown is the Evangeline groundwater project, which involves a pipeline and about two dozen wells that could add enough water to fend off an emergency. State approval is still needed, but the city hopes water can flow as early as November. The new springs have drawbacks: Some have raised concerns about water quality, and some worry that excessive pumping could deplete groundwater.

If the city were to declare a water emergency, it would be able to more aggressively reduce its water use – mandatory reductions that would apply equally to all industries and residents. It’s a sensitive decision that risks being a “prolonged bloodbath,” Loeb said.

Given that residents have already reduced their water use on average, future mandatory reductions will likely weigh more heavily on the industry.

“It will be an incredible disaster,” said Don Roach, former deputy general manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District, which has many industrial customers in the area. “When you cut off the cooling water to most of these industries, they just have to close their doors. There’s no other way around it.”

Paulison said companies that produce fuel, polymers, iron and steel “have the least flexibility to simply reduce their water usage.” He added, however, that businesses remain optimistic about their ability to reduce usage, adapt and continue operations.

Zanoni said the city’s plans should buy time to avoid the worst.

“We hope we don’t make it, but we don’t work on hope,” he said.

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