City of Corpus Christi officials held a press conference on Friday regarding regional water concerns, and the city’s water supply and projects. This comes after state leaders were critical of the city's response to the water emergency.
"We’re not running out of water," City Manager Peter Zanoni said. "We're not in trouble, like I said last week at Lake Corpus Christi, this is no time to panic. It's no time to doubt the work that we've been doing for years. It's time to recognize that we have water supply."
He said the city has multiple sources of new supply, with permits pending for some of those projects. He called the ongoing drought the “worst on record,” and reiterated the City has about a billion dollars in projects initiated. Those projects, utilizing effluent reuse and groundwater, are expected to add 76 million gallons per day (MGD) of new water supply. That’s not including three desalination plants in the works, including the Inner Harbor Desalination Plant.
"All that work on the groundwater projects, the effluent reuse have taken the last two years or so, and now they're all approved by city council," Zanoni said. "That's what we've been doing the past couple of months . . . is bringing them to city council, working with the council. They have, with almost unanimous votes, approved a billion dollars worth of projects outside of [desalination]."
Those plans included upgrading the Mary Rhodes Pipeline to bring in 24 million more gallons per day from eastern sources. The three desalination plants could bring in another 30 to 50 MGD, according to Zanoni.
Not all of those projects are expected to be completed by November, which is when city officials estimate the city could be under a water curtailment.
City officials now use six different planning models to reflect factors like no‑rain scenarios, higher evaporation, and new water quality issues like rising arsenic in the western groundwater reservoirs. The models will help determine if and when a Level 1 water emergency might be needed.
The additional models will be presented to City Council on Tuesday, March 17.
City officials are also increasing regional outreach — through town halls, city council presentations, and community meetings — to mitigate misinformation.
“The work we're doing is not just to get past the drought and hope the reservoirs fill up and then we go on to new business," Zanoni said. "This is a big change. It's going to bring stability to our neighborhoods, to our commercial businesses, and maybe most importantly, to our economic engine."
