San Patricio County Judge David Krebs said fairness and proper oversight remain top priorities for his community.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi City Council is set to discuss the Evangeline Aquifer project during executive session on Tuesday, where council members will receive legal advice on the next steps. Meanwhile, leaders in San Patricio County say their main concern is ensuring the process is handled fairly.
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At-large Councilman Roland Barrera said the project, which aims to secure additional water resources for the city, has been met with resistance from officials in neighboring San Patricio County, pushback he believes could slow the overall timeline.
“But I think once again there’s going to present some challenges, it’s a very complicated process,” he said.
San Patricio County Judge David Krebs said fairness and proper oversight remain top priorities for his community.
“The city of Sinton has indicated that they want to contest every permit. The groundwater district, they want a moratorium on water exports outside of the county. So that’s going to make it much more difficult for us to be able to expedite this within a year,” he said.
Krebs said he also wants residents in his county to pay close attention to water quality as the project moves forward.
“Go ahead and have their water tested right now so you have a grounds as to what’s going on. And if they start seeing some type of change in their water, they’ll have a base that they’re supposed to be at. Then they’ll have to go to the city of Corpus, and the city of Corpus will have to fix that issue,” he said.
Barrera said that if San Patricio County does contest the permits, the application process alone could be expensive for the City of Corpus Christi.
“There has to be a lot of engineering that is done, a lot of testing on the wells that we do have. So yeah, there is a process,” he said.