The boat ramp at Choke Canyon Reservoir is seen in May 2025, when lake levels were at about 15% full. As of March 23, 2026, Choke Canyon is 8% full.
Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
This week, Corpus Christi officials have engaged in a very public spat with leaders in Three Rivers, a small town of about 1,800 people that’s located about 70 miles northwest — and upstream — of Corpus Christi over a looming water crisis. Since Monday, the two cities have traded pointed jabs in dueling news releases that accuse the other of blundering the response to the situation — and it’s not the first time Corpus Christi has met criticisms in such a way.
“Unfortunately, their approach with Three Rivers and throughout the Region seems to be creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and garnering significant and negative Local, State and National attention,” Three Rivers noted in a statement on Tuesday, March 24.
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“Has this approach been the best for the Region? YOU BE THE JUDGE!” the statement further reads.
Increasingly, the communities surrounding the Coastal Bend’s largest city are accusing it of obfuscating the severity of the water crisis by allegedly refusing to share data and failing to communicate with them.
Corpus Christi announces Coastal Bend could reach “water emergency” by November
During a Corpus Christi City Council meeting in mid-January, Corpus Christi Water (CCW) officials announced that the city — and the half-dozen Coastal Bend communities CCW contracts with — could reach a “level 1” water emergency as soon as this November and that Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon could run dry as soon as May 2027.
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But newer water modeling indicated the emergency could come six months earlier than expected. That prompted state Sen. Adam Hinojosa, R-Corpus Christi, to call for a meeting earlier this month between Corpus Christi and the city of Sinton to discuss the larger city’s plans to tap into a local aquifer via dozens of groundwater wells.
Corpus Christi officials have been fending off numerous criticisms from surrounding Coastal Bend communities, including Three Rivers and Sinton, over its handling of a looming water crisis.
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Sinton declines regional meeting with Corpus Christi Water
Sinton declined the meeting, citing a lack of transparency and CCW’s “refusal to share critical” data about the groundwater well project. Sinton worried that Corpus Christi’s Evangeline well project could “significantly and unreasonably” impact the city’s own wells and feared Corpus Christi was not taking their concerns into account.
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“That spirit of collaboration has not been reciprocated,” Sinton officials said on March 13.
“Corpus Christi (has) made their position clear: their comments on our counterproposal signal a ‘take as presented’ approach, not a willingness to negotiate in good faith,” Sinton said.
Corpus Christi, meanwhile, said it had been “excluded from speaking at Sinton City Council Meetings,” and maintained that its attorneys had replied to the smaller town “on multiple occasions.”
Three Rivers lambasts Corpus Christi over “inaccurate” water supply projections
While Sinton couched its criticisms in polite terms, officials in Three Rivers were much more pointed, saying late Tuesday, “We knew their news had to be really bad” because Corpus Christi administrators had not visited the oil town “in at least the last 25 years” prior to January.
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Like Sinton, Three Rivers accused Corpus Christi of failing to communicate, withholding crucial data, and ignoring the smaller town’s legal rights to its water supply, Choke Canyon. In a statement, Corpus Christi said it had been working with Three Rivers even though the town isn’t one of its water customers. Corpus Christi also claimed Three Rivers ignored its offers to help on a well project. Three Rivers rebuffed the claim as Corpus Christi trying to look like a savior for a problem it allegedly created.
“They are touting this offer as kind and generous, but to use it sounds like ‘pay us to look like your rescuer and help you after we communicated flawed water projections… that would adversely affect the City of Three Rivers,’” Three Rivers said.