Dylan Baddour | Inside Climate News

Stubbornly unrealistic assessments of the region's reservoir system turned this year's drought conditions into an emergency.

Officials from the Nueces River Authority collected millions of dollars from cities and utility districts near San Antonio and Austin before they partnered with an Israeli desalination giant.

For the retired shrimper, the 8,000-mile trip to Formosa Plastics' annual shareholder meeting in Taipei was part of a strategy of being relentless.

In April, one of the city's three reservoirs received its first inflows in eight months. But narrowly avoiding an immediate disaster doesn't mean that Corpus Christi has solved its water crisis.

Authorities in Sinton won’t confirm or deny Corpus Christi’s suggestion that the small town is hoarding its precious groundwater for data centers. Across Texas, a booming buildout of server farms is adding strain to water resources that are already stretched to their limit.

Small towns around Corpus Christi worry where they'll fall on the pecking order if the region's water runs out.

Even hospitals are drilling wells as the region's reservoirs reach disastrously low levels and ratings agencies downgrade the city's outlook.

Cities towns and industrial complexes aim to quickly pump tens of millions of gallons per day in a bid to avert disaster.

City officials expect to reach a “water emergency” within months and run out of water next year. That would halt jet fuel deliveries to Texas airports, hike gas prices and trigger a local economic disaster without precedent, former officials say.