(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
Correction: One of the new appointees to the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery Conservation District is John Michael, listed in his application as a civil engineer and senior vice president of Hanson Professional Services. A previous version of this story stated an incorrect name.
New members are joining a groundwater management board, a body that has taken on new profile amid a punishing drought that has led city officials to pumping wells in Nueces County, outside corporate city limits.
With little discussion, the Corpus Christi City Council on Jan. 27 appointed three engineers to the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery Conservation District. Two of the three members are new to the board and not employed with the city.
New members appointed are John Michael, listed in his application as a civil engineer and senior vice president of Hanson Professional Services, and Kyle Hooper, shown in city documents as a professional engineer and principal of Pillar Engineering LLC.
Water from six wells is discharged into the Nueces River in Corpus Christi on Dec. 12, 2025.
The council also reappointed Jeff Edmonds, a civil engineer and the city’s director of engineering services, in a 6-3 vote.
City Council members Gil Hernandez, Eric Cantu and Sylvia Campos voted in dissent.
The board that governs the CCASRCD is intended to operate separately from the city, charged with overseeing groundwater and aquifer storage within the boundaries of the district.
It is managed through an agreement between the district and the city.
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The five-member board was, until Jan. 27, composed solely of city employees.
Bill Mahaffey, city of Corpus Christi director of gas operations, and Dan McGinn, currently a Corpus Christi interim assistant city manager, are continuing their service on the board.
McGinn is expected to retire from the city but is anticipated to remain on the board, officials said.
The significance of the past board’s employment has been a point of disagreement between board members and supporters of a proposed Nueces Groundwater Conservation District.
Known as GCDs, the districts act as regulatory bodies.
One does not currently exist for Nueces County.
City officials have said the CCASRCD performs the same functions as a GCD and its membership has not posed a conflict of interest in its decision-making.
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NGCD supporters have contended the CCASRCD’s oversight of city projects amounts to self-regulation.
The board has drawn scrutiny since the city began pumping groundwater from properties located outside city limits, in Nueces County.
The city-owned acreage was in the fall absorbed into the CCASRCD’s district boundaries, making the board the body that regulates groundwater activities on the properties.
Rural property owners have expressed concern over the city’s projects, raising questions about potential impacts to local, privately owned wells that supply rural households, ranchers and farmers with water.
The board will likely attract further scrutiny, as city officials contemplate adding a third groundwater well field in Nueces County, which staff estimates may produce as much as 12 million gallons to 24 million gallons per day.
City officials have said there is interest in the property owner petitioning for inclusion in the CCASRCD’s boundaries.
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi groundwater board, pivotal in drought, has new members