Recent rainfall improved Beeville’s water supply, but city leaders say long-term water projects remain a priority.
BEEVILLE, Texas — Recent rainfall has given Beeville more breathing room in its water supply, but Assistant City Manager Daniel Dorgan said the city is pressing ahead with major projects to prepare for future droughts.
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Dorgan said rising reservoir levels have eased immediate concerns after months of critically low water conditions, giving the city valuable time to complete projects designed to strengthen Beeville’s water system.
“The recent rains that have come into the reservoirs have definitely been such a blessing to our community,” Dorgan said.
As of Tuesday morning, Lake Corpus Christi was about 65.5% full, while Choke Canyon Reservoir was nearly 25% full. Dorgan said water levels at Beeville’s intake structure have risen by an estimated 9 to 10 feet.
“The biggest answer is it’s buying us more time to get our projects all aligned,” Dorgan said. “These are some of the lake levels that we haven’t seen in three, four or even five years.”
Despite the improvement, Dorgan said the city is not easing its focus on building a more reliable water supply. “We’re still full gas ahead,” he said. “We still want to establish a secondary water source just to make sure we are drought resistant in the future.”
During the drought, Dorgan said Beeville came close to losing access to its surface water intake as lake levels continued to fall. “We were very close to potentially going to a water loss, but fortunately that never happened,” Dorgan said. “We never had a total water loss.”
Beeville currently draws most of its drinking water from its intake near Sweeney Switch. The city has also drilled wells at Chase Field and recently completed a new 1,600-foot-deep well into the Jasper Aquifer, which will be brought online after the system is fully completed.
Dorgan said Beeville also remains committed to constructing a reverse osmosis water treatment system, even though improving lake levels have reduced the immediate urgency.
Residents have also helped conserve water during the drought. Dorgan said summer water demand has dropped from about 4 million gallons per day to between 2.5 million and 3 million gallons per day because of conservation efforts.
While Corpus Christi returned to Stage 2 water restrictions Tuesday, Dorgan said Beeville has not yet decided whether to ease its own restrictions. City staff plans to meet later this week to discuss possible changes to the city’s drought contingency plan before making a recommendation to the City Council.
The city will also remain under its water emergency declaration to help keep water projects moving forward. “We’re going to move forward,” Dorgan said. “We have plans to eventually build our reverse osmosis system and be drought resistant.”