Corpus Christi Residents and Businesses May Have to Cut Water Use by 25%

Corpus Christi residents and businesses — including one of the nation’s largest petrochemical corridors — may be required to cut water use by 25% during a water emergency that city leaders expect to hit by September unless a devastating drought eases.

The City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday to give initial approval to a water curtailment plan that would set water limits for different customers, ranging from residents and local businesses to large oil companies. The council is expected to take a final vote adopting the curtailment plan on May 19.

City leaders for months have been bracing for a Level 1 water emergency — the point when the city’s supply is projected to be 180 days away from falling short of demand. If there’s no significant rainfall soon, experts are predicting that may be around four months away.

Under an updated recommendation from the city’s water department that was given preliminary approval Tuesday, residents’ baseline was set at 8,000 gallons a month. Under an emergency, that allotment would fall 25% to 6,000 gallons a month. An earlier proposal set the emergency limit at 5,250 gallons for residential customers.

The city is also working on creating an online portal where residents can track water use.

In addition, the water department now recommends that during a Level 1 emergency, residents be allowed to wash vehicles at home with five-gallon buckets as well as hand-held hoses with a shut-off nozzle. Under previous recommendations, all car and boat washing would have been prohibited.

For industrial and wholesale customers such as the cities of Alice, Beeville and Mathis, the city would require 25% reductions based on a three-year average of water use. That amount would also take into account changes in usage based on the season.

“Water customers are not subject to violations, penalties, or enforcement for exceeding their baseline or exceeding their allocation,” read an addition to the ordinance that received initial approval Tuesday.

The water department previously recommended that violations be considered a Class C misdemeanor, subject to a fine of up to $500, with a second violation potentially leading to the city cutting off a customer’s water for at least one monthly billing cycle.

Customers still can be cited for prohibited practices during a Level 1 water emergency, such as landscape watering, according to a Tuesday news release from the city.

The tentatively adopted curtailment strategy also includes additional fees that could be charged to all types of customers that use more water than allowed, starting with $4 per 1,000 gallons over their allocation and subsequently rising to $8 per 1,000 gallons over their baseline. Federal and state government users, however, would be exempt from these surcharges.

The council still has to consider approving these fees separately by resolution, the city’s news release said.

The region has been in the grips of a brutal drought that has caused the city’s main reservoirs to reach historic lows. More than 95% of the city’s water supply comes from surface water, primarily lakes and reservoirs, according to the state’s 2022 water plan. The combined capacity of Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir has dropped to around 8.5%, prompting city leaders to scale up drought contingency plans.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

Photo: The Wesley E. Seale Dam, on the Nueces River, forms a reservoir owned and operated by Corpus Christi. Brenda Bazán for The Texas Tribune