What's going with the water in Corpus Christi

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Dan Scott
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7:42p, 3/7/26
AG
The reservoir is at lows. The city just approved a bunch of no bid contracts say there wasn't time to go through the formal process. People are blaming it on the expansion of industry and all their water consumption.

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Burrus86
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7:44p, 3/7/26
AG
It's never been the same since Robert Earl's "Corpus Christi Bay."
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AozorAg
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7:46p, 3/7/26
They recently voted against starting a desalination program too. That city is run by ******s. And yes, the industry there is also using too much of the wafer.
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birdman
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8:07p, 3/7/26
Been in epic drought for several years.
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fullback44
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8:13p, 3/7/26
AG
We are here in Corpus / Port A area for spring break now…. Got in a few good showers w no water flow issues, also washed the boat after fishing
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8:24p, 3/7/26
AG
If they would call it by it's correct name, it would always be full
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ABATTBQ11
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In reply to AozorAg • 12:19a, 3/8/26
AG
AozorAg said:
They recently voted against starting a desalination program too. That city is run by ******s. And yes, the industry there is also using too much of the wafer.


That is still on the table, and they had good reason with the ballooning costs.
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BTKAG97
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1:13a, 3/8/26
AG
Would love to see the line item cost breakdown for a $1B "water project".
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FCBlitz
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3:57a, 3/8/26
I stayed in down town Corpus Christie last year and I couldn't believe how neglected and underutilized all that real estate is. It looks liked a dead town square in a small Texas town after Walmart had opened up on the opposite side of town.

It just seemed sad. The homeless sleeping everywhere just crazy. They all were just sun baked.
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ts5641
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In reply to FCBlitz • 7:19a, 3/8/26
FCBlitz said:
I stayed in down town Corpus Christie last year and I couldn't believe how neglected and underutilized all that real estate is. It looks liked a dead town square in a small Texas town after Walmart had opened up on the opposite side of town.

It just seemed sad. The homeless sleeping everywhere just crazy. They all were just sun baked.

Another area being ruined by left wing dreams.
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moses hall ag
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In reply to ABATTBQ11 • 7:26a, 3/8/26
AG
ABATTBQ11 said:
AozorAg said:
They recently voted against starting a desalination program too. That city is run by ******s. And yes, the industry there is also using too much of the wafer.


That is still on the table, and they had good reason with the ballooning costs.

"Ballooning costs" is just another straw-man argument used by councilmembers with objectives other than addressing the problem. The first design-build company never even got to the guaranteed maximum price before they were terminated. The inner harbor desal project is fully permitted and it was delayed for a host of "reasons" but none of them relevant. The focus for the anti-desal crowd now is a far field study but it is just another delay tactic. If the near field studies concluded that the brine dissipates to acceptable levels in the near field, why would we expect it not to be dissipated in the far field?

As usual, don't believe what is being reported in the media. Anti-business advocates are using the drought and weak politicians to run business and industry out of town.
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K2-HMFIC
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7:54a, 3/8/26
The de-sal plant was cancelled by the sport fishing lobby.

Too much industry drawing too much water.

But most importantly, not enough rainfall on the Nueces River watershed (Bracketville, Carrizo Springs, Tilden).
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moses hall ag
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In reply to K2-HMFIC • 8:47a, 3/8/26
AG
K2-HMFIC said:
The de-sal plant was cancelled by the sport fishing lobby.

Too much industry drawing too much water.

But most importantly, not enough rainfall on the Nueces River watershed (Bracketville, Carrizo Springs, Tilden).



Sports fishing industry does not have authority to shut down the desal plant. Many of our fishing guides oppose it strongly but again, because they are listening to misinformation. Also, there was confusion between a proposed desal facility on Baffin Bay and the cc ship channel project.
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Dad-O-Lot
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8:52a, 3/8/26
AG
One thing I haven't heard much about publicly is that San Antonio is diverting water from the Frio river that would otherwise be going to Choke Canyon Lake and Lake Corpus Christi.
People of integrity expect to be believed, when they're not, they let time prove them right.
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K2-HMFIC
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In reply to moses hall ag • 8:53a, 3/8/26
moses hall ag said:
K2-HMFIC said:
The de-sal plant was cancelled by the sport fishing lobby.

Too much industry drawing too much water.

But most importantly, not enough rainfall on the Nueces River watershed (Bracketville, Carrizo Springs, Tilden).



Sports fishing industry does not have authority to shut down the desal plant. Many of our fishing guides oppose it strongly but again, because they are listening to misinformation. Also, there was confusion between a proposed desal facility on Baffin Bay and the cc ship channel project.



The industry no…but all the people who moved to CC to sportfish, or grew up there doing it? Yea…that's a lot of damn people.

CCA Texas endorsed desal but only under some super specific conditions.
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YouBet
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9:39a, 3/8/26
AG
I live outside of Corpus but tied to their water supply. It's about to get awful. We've been in Stage 3 water restrictions since December 2024. Moving to Stage 4 soon...sounds imminent. Corpus had already informed local industry that they would take a 25% haircut on water supply beginning in December 2026 and Corpus just said this last week their projections are coming in 6 months sooner than anticipated.

A second desal plant has been preliminarily approved but final construction has yet to be approved and won't until April. Years away from that solution. Interim solution is a separate brackish water desal thing and/or groundwater plan. These sound like they are still 12-24 months away.

People here pretty much praying for a hurricane at this point because it's our only near-term salvation.

Wife and I have decided to move out of this mess. We expect to have issues selling because of this, obviously.
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American Hardwood
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9:41a, 3/8/26
AG
Desal was cancelled because the cost estimates kept going up and more importantly, would not have been able to deliver water on a timetable to prevent catastrophe.

The water issue has been highly political. The pro-desal folks have been pretty savage in attacking any other option and frankly have been pretty dishonest in their campaign.

Cheaper groundwater has been an option on the table for at least ten years and a lot of powerful people have been "desal or nothing" the entire time.

I don't blame the recent councils, they represent the citizens and the citizens have been divided. Lay blame on past councils if you want for kicking the can. I actually believe that city council is actually doing a pretty good job of solving the problem now that should have been addressed years ago.

I have been and am involved with both the groundwater and desal projects and gave always been a proponent of doing both. Diversity of sources is the answer long term but right now, groundwater is the only solution that can deliver quickly enough to avert disaster. That will buy time for the right desal project.
The best way to keep evil men from wielding great power is to not create great power in the first place.
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Burdizzo
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In reply to ABATTBQ11 • 9:46a, 3/8/26
AG
ABATTBQ11 said:
AozorAg said:
They recently voted against starting a desalination program too. That city is run by ******s. And yes, the industry there is also using too much of the wafer.


That is still on the table, and they had good reason with the ballooning costs.



Except that the popular excuse is that it was killed for environmental reasons.
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American Hardwood
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In reply to YouBet • 9:46a, 3/8/26
AG
Groundwater 'should' begin delivery in less than 12 months. Not the full permitted amount, but enough to hopefully ease the alarm. There is protest or two on the permits that have to work their way through legal channels. The city may be able to come to a agreement with those parties before the courts have to deal with it.
The best way to keep evil men from wielding great power is to not create great power in the first place.
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YouBet
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In reply to American Hardwood • 9:47a, 3/8/26
AG
American Hardwood said:
Groundwater 'should' begin delivery in less than 12 months. Not the full permitted amount, but enough to hopefully ease the alarm. There is protest or two on the permits that have to work their way through legal channels. The city may be able to come to a agreement with those parties before the courts have to deal with it.


Thanks. Was about to ask you timeline on that.
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Burdizzo
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In reply to Dad-O-Lot • 9:48a, 3/8/26
AG
Dad-O-Lot said:
One thing I haven't heard much about publicly is that San Antonio is diverting water from the Frio river that would otherwise be going to Choke Canyon Lake and Lake Corpus Christi.



Where is this happening?
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K2-HMFIC
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9:48a, 3/8/26
CC going after groundwater is going to absolutely gut the local communities that totally rely on it and the farmers.

The fact the Welders sold their water rights to Corpus is going to kill Sinton.
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American Hardwood
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In reply to K2-HMFIC • 9:51a, 3/8/26
AG
K2-HMFIC said:
CC going after groundwater is going to absolutely gut the local communities that totally rely on it and the farmers.

The fact the Welders sold their water rights to Corpus is going to kill Sinton.


The hydrology reports say you are 100% wrong.
The best way to keep evil men from wielding great power is to not create great power in the first place.
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Burdizzo
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In reply to FCBlitz • 9:53a, 3/8/26
AG
FCBlitz said:
I stayed in down town Corpus Christie last year and I couldn't believe how neglected and underutilized all that real estate is. It looks liked a dead town square in a small Texas town after Walmart had opened up on the opposite side of town.

It just seemed sad. The homeless sleeping everywhere just crazy. They all were just sun baked.


It has been that way for several decades. It is like a miniature version of San Antonio. Lots of potential and lots of underperforming
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K2-HMFIC
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In reply to American Hardwood • 9:56a, 3/8/26
Carrizo-Wilcox aquifer recharge rates aren't going to be able to keep up with projected industrial growth…and if you over use the aquifer you'll end up killing its ability to support ag.
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HTownAg98
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In reply to Dad-O-Lot • 10:01a, 3/8/26
Dad-O-Lot said:
One thing I haven't heard much about publicly is that San Antonio is diverting water from the Frio river that would otherwise be going to Choke Canyon Lake and Lake Corpus Christi.

That would require the Frio River having water in it to divert which it hasn't had in a long damn time. It goes dry south of Uvalde, and only reaches Choke in floods. The rains the area got in 2025, not as extensive as what happened in Hunt but still significant, barely nudged the lake level in Choke Canyon. It's going to take a Hurricane Harvey level event that parks itself over the western Hill Country to fill those lakes.
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American Hardwood
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In reply to K2-HMFIC • 10:05a, 3/8/26
AG
Well it's a good thing that the Welder property is over the Evangeline aquifer then.
The best way to keep evil men from wielding great power is to not create great power in the first place.
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FriendlyAg
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10:09a, 3/8/26
Has the city not been charging water impact fees to approve industrial projects so that infrastructure could be improved for newcomers and existing customers? Isn't that the whole point of impact fees?
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American Hardwood
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In reply to HTownAg98 • 10:11a, 3/8/26
AG
This has been the biggest issue. It has been too dry, too long in the watershed areas. This is an area of geography where I do worry about clime change. Nog that made up manmade BS, but real natural change.

It just seems like it used to rain a lot more in the region decades ago than it does now. Maybe that period was the exception I don't know, but South Texas does not get the rain that even San Antonio and Victoria get just a little further north.
The best way to keep evil men from wielding great power is to not create great power in the first place.
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The Chicken Ranch
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In reply to K2-HMFIC • 10:20a, 3/8/26
AG
K2-HMFIC said:
CC going after groundwater is going to absolutely gut the local communities that totally rely on it and the farmers.

The fact the Welders sold their water rights to Corpus is going to kill Sinton.


Absolutely correct. There has been no study of the long term effect of pumping the aquifer at the levels it would take to stabilize Corpus Christi. This wells will be brackish within 18 months and will have to be a to be drilled, deeper and deeper, and deeper, until they just cannot anymore. Ask anyone in agriculture what their wells will sustain: that why the farming is all dry land!

This screws rural folks and rural communities, as their wells will turn brackish, or simply dry up. Rural folks better be looking into massive rainwater collection systems if you have the means to! Most folks that live in rural areas cannot afford to fight this, or pay for alternative water sources for their homes.

This problem exists because Corpus Christi leadership is atrocious. This should have been planned for 20 years ago. When I moved here in 2006 we were talking about desalination then, and nothing was done. Now we've kicked that can so far down the road that the cost has escalated to mind numbing levels. While we will do nothing. We need a desalination solution that can generate 100 million gallons a day, and is expandable to 200 million. Period. End. Of. Story. 25 million gallons is a joke!

Groundwater may be able to bridge us for 18 months, or longer, but it is no viable solution. Industry will shut down, thousands of jobs lost, and this place will be nothing but a fart in the wind.

But C.C. already is a joke! Look at the travel board. People that visit C.C. are blown away at how backward it is, how trashy it is, how undeveloped it is, etc. It's a dump, and it's that way because of the self-serving, incompetent, and agenda driven leadership. Then you have a radical left wing council member like Sylvia Campos, and a low IQ councilman in Gil Hernandez that couldn't lead their way out of a wet paper bag. Campos is controlled by radical left wing professor Dr. Isabel Araiza that wants the industry to dry up, everyone to leave, and for us to give the land back to the Indians!

You just can't make up the stupidity!

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The Chicken Ranch
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In reply to American Hardwood • 10:25a, 3/8/26
AG
American Hardwood said:
This has been the biggest issue. It has been too dry, too long in the watershed areas. This is an area of geography where I do worry about clime change. Nog that made up manmade BS, but real natural change.

It just seems like it used to rain a lot more in the region decades ago than it does now. Maybe that period was the exception I don't know, but South Texas does not get the rain that even San Antonio and Victoria get just a little further north.


Study your history, particularly the 1930s and 1950s. Our records only go back about 150 years. Long prolonged drought is common to this environment. In fact, we are emerging from a decades long wet period and reverting to the mean! Our water usage is astronomically higher than it was 20 years ago, which is why the reservoirs cannot sustain us. It's usage, not the weather. We built two lakes on watersheds that drain the edge of a desert. One of the rivers that we have a lake on, Choke Canyon, dams a river that is dry most of the time! What did we expect? And you want to blame the drought on climate change? This is the climate for this area!! In the mid 1800's the early founders didn't even think a city was viable here because of the long prolonged droughts that this areas was prone to. This is nothing new!

Again, you just can't make this stuff up!
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knoxtom
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10:30a, 3/8/26
Corpus is in serious trouble and will run dry this summer or next.

The desalination plant was not approved because they did not have energy capacity to run it. Desalination takes a HUGE amount of energy and they choose air conditioners and refining over water.

Water in the system does not make it to the corpus lakes.

The aquifer is running very low. If water were not being grabbed to run fracking up north then they would have more water in the aquifer, which would mean more in the river system. The rule in Texas is that whoever gets the water first owns it (Capture) so the guys up north are grabbing all they can and using it to push out oil. That means Austin and San Antonio don't have as much in the Edwards aquifer and they take more surface water, which means less for Corpus.

The State of Texas was approached 6-8 years ago with a plan to trade unused highway funds to Louisiana for water running into the Gulf of Mexico, which would then be piped to Austin and San Antonio. At the time Louisiana had a Democrat governor and the Texas Governor said he wouldn't cross the aisle. Even when told it was a 50 year solution for Central TX and central gulf water problems, he refused.

Water politics in Texas is in a bad place and is run by some bad people. And since using water is more profitable for oil, they get it over the commoners.

A couple years ago I thought about writing a book about the water wars in Texas. People think it is an issue for the future but this stuff has gone on for the last 20 years and the proverbial **** is about to hit the fan. Texas is in BIG trouble. There are so many band aids on the system right now.
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Hubert J. Farnsworth
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In reply to Dad-O-Lot • 10:30a, 3/8/26
Dad-O-Lot said:
One thing I haven't heard much about publicly is that San Antonio is diverting water from the Frio river that would otherwise be going to Choke Canyon Lake and Lake Corpus Christi.


I didn't know that. Where are they diverting it at?
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knoxtom
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In reply to The Chicken Ranch • 10:32a, 3/8/26
The Chicken Ranch said:
American Hardwood said:
This has been the biggest issue. It has been too dry, too long in the watershed areas. This is an area of geography where I do worry about clime change. Nog that made up manmade BS, but real natural change.

It just seems like it used to rain a lot more in the region decades ago than it does now. Maybe that period was the exception I don't know, but South Texas does not get the rain that even San Antonio and Victoria get just a little further north.


Study your history, particularly the 1930s and 1950s. Our records only go back about 150 years. Long prolonged drought is common to this environment. In fact, we are emerging from a decades long wet period and reverting to the mean! Our water usage is astronomically higher than it was 20 years ago, which is why the reservoirs cannot sustain us. It's usage, not the weather. We built two lakes on watersheds that drain the edge of a desert. One of the rivers that we have a lake on, Choke Canyon, dams a river that is dry most of the time! What did we expect? And you want to blame the drought on climate change? This is the climate for this area!! In the mid 1800's the early founders didn't even think a city was viable here because of the long prolonged droughts that this areas was prone to. This is nothing new!

Again, you just can't make this stuff up!



Interesting fact... Civilian water usage is down over the past 20 years. But industrial water usage is way up.
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The Chicken Ranch
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In reply to knoxtom • 10:37a, 3/8/26
AG
Exactly! The jobs and economic drivers that the city depend on were sold on an abundant, vast supply of water. So, they use a LOT of water. Welp, guess what?
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