Corpus Christi has responded to inflammatory allegations from officials in Three Rivers, who blame the Coastal Bend’s largest city for a hastening of its water crisis that could leave Three Rivers without access to water a year earlier than anticipated.
On Monday, March 23, the city of Three Rivers issued a public notice announcing that it would “soon” be unable to draw water from Choke Canyon Reservoir, which serves as the primary fresh water source for the tiny town of about 1,800 people.
Three Rivers directly attributed the impending water crisis — which comes as the entire Coastal Bend grapples with worsening water scarcity fueled by years of drought — on alleged incompetence by Corpus Christi. Three Rivers claims that as recently as January, Corpus Christi made “inaccurate” projections about the water supply that wrongly led them to believe they would have continued access to Choke Canyon water through next spring.
Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon are the two largest sources of water in the Coastal Bend, and once supplied nearly three-fourths of Corpus Christi’s water. Meanwhile, Three Rivers, which lies about 70 miles away, is almost entirely dependent on Choke Canyon for its water. As of Monday, the two lakes were at a combined storage of 8.3%. And therein lies the problem. Three Rivers claims Corpus Christi will soon release water from Choke Canyon into Lake Corpus Christi, which will leave Three Rivers’ pumps unable to draw water from the rapidly dwindling reservoir. Three Rivers officials said Corpus Christi failed to account for that water release when projecting that Choke Canyon’s supply would last through May 2027.
But in a statement posted to the city’s website late Monday, Corpus Christi claims that Three Rivers has “repeatedly” ignored its offers of help, and downplayed recent changes to its water availability projections as a natural consequence of “changing conditions.”
“Scenario models are regularly updated to reflect changing conditions… Outputs naturally shift as these inputs evolve,” Corpus Christi’s statement reads.
Corpus Christi officials went on to add that they’ve had numerous meetings with Three Rivers city leaders since January, and that Corpus Christi had encouraged the smaller town to fast track any alternative water supply infrastructure projects they had, including a groundwater well project. Corpus Christi officials claimed Three Rivers ignored their repeated offers to help with that project “as part of the City’s good neighbor program.”
However, in the same statement, Corpus Christi officials made a point of noting that Three Rivers, which lies upstream, “is not directly or indirectly a customer of Corpus Christi Water.” While the small town is not one of the half-dozen Coastal Bend communities that contracts with Corpus Christi Water, the fate of its water access is directly tied to Corpus Christi’s actions. Three Rivers owns and maintains water rights to a portion of Choke Canyon’s capacity — at least 1,500 acre feet, according to a 2019 water conservation and drought contingency plan. That’s the equivalent of about 489 million gallons of water.