Officials in Orange Grove say a sharp drop in local well levels has raised concerns about the region’s water supply, prompting discussions with leaders from Corpus Christi over possible causes.

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City leaders announced earlier this week that well levels have fallen to just feet above emergency thresholds. They believe the decline may be connected to Corpus Christi’s use of multiple groundwater wells in western Nueces County.

Leaders from both cities met in Orange Grove to address the issue and agreed to further study the situation.

“This is a shared aquifer,” said Orange Grove City Administrator Todd Wright. “It’s not isolated or confined or restricted to just one city. It’s for all of South Texas.”

Corpus Christi has increasingly relied on groundwater wells as a temporary solution to maintain water supply while long-term infrastructure projects – such as desalination plants – are developed.

But Orange Grove officials say they’ve also noticed changes in water quality.

“We trend normally in the high 800s to low 900s,” Wright said, referring to contaminant levels measured in total dissolved solids (TDS). “But over the last year, we’ve reached the 1,100 range. That’s a spike that we want to dive into to understand what’s causing it.”

Both cities agreed to hire independent hydrogeologists to study whether Corpus Christi’s wells are affecting Orange Grove’s water supply.

Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni urged caution in drawing conclusions.

“We don’t know that for sure, and we caution them not to rush to conclusions,” Zanoni said. “Nobody in the room today was a hydrogeologist.”

Wright said the meeting was productive and emphasized the importance of protecting a shared resource by analogizing the situation to multiple people drinking out of the same drink.

“It’s all of us going into that same drink of water,” he said. “We have to take a conservative approach to its use.”

Orange Grove officials plan to provide an update during an emergency city council meeting scheduled for 7:30 AM Friday morning.