Nueces County resident Kris Cuellar said the move is government overreach and won’t benefit those who rely on groundwater.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The sixth floor of City Hall was packed Tuesday as leaders and residents weighed in on the future of Corpus Christi’s water infrastructure.
The City of Corpus Christi has filed a petition seeking to place its well fields under the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery Conservation District.
Nueces County resident Kris Cuellar said the move is government overreach and won’t benefit those who rely on groundwater.
“All the people in those areas mainly are county residents that rely on water wells,” he said.
The district voted to include land based on property the city said it owns.
“The extended reach of the city to come out of the city to come out to the county to drill those wells, they did it under rule of capture so they could get all they could without any overreach,” Cuellar said.
Cuellar said that’s what led the community to push for forming its own groundwater conservation district.
“And that’s why the groundwater conservation district was decided to organize and try to form is to bring oversight into what the city was doing,” he said.
Esteban Ramos, general manager of the city’s aquifer storage and recovery conservation district, said he understands community concerns about fairness — but believes the well fields offer crucial potential for the region.
“It’s an advantage the City of Corpus Christi to serve over three-hundred thousand in Nueces County and the Coastal Bend. As customers this adds to a supply,” he said.
Ramos said if the land is not placed under the district’s regulation, it could cause more harm than good.
“It would mean reduction in production and added cost for production to the City of Christi and it’s rate payers,” he said.
With the board approving the city’s petition, Ramos said the next steps are for the city to submit necessary permits to begin the regulatory process.