CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — There’s a growing fight brewing along the Nueces River and it’s all over salt.

Some residents and landowners say the city of Corpus Christi’s well project, designed to pull millions of gallons of groundwater from the area, is making the river saltier and could threaten the delicate balance of its ecosystem.

A ride up and down the river shows both the natural beauty of the Nueces and the changes some say are already happening.

Residents Kelly Harlan and Chris Cuellar have been testing water samples from different points along the river. Their findings show that areas where the city’s wells discharge water are significantly saltier than spots farther upstream.

“This has been at 1,200-plus for months,” Harlan said. “And that’s going to have a drastic effect on the fish, the birds, the insects….everything that uses this river.”

Cuellar, who owns land along the river, says the data doesn’t lie. He measured total dissolved solids and salinity levels to show what’s coming from the lakes versus what’s being added by the city’s wells.

“This is baseline upstream of the first well,” Cuellar said. “It’s 858 milligrams per liter TDS and 0.7 salinity. That’s what we get on a daily average.”

But Cuellar said the numbers shoot up fast once the city’s salty well water starts mixing in. Some readings jumped from around 800 to more than 3,500 in a matter of miles.

“The impact is far greater in that short zone where the blending hasn’t occurred yet,” Cuellar said. “The river’s current is slow, so that concentrated water stretches for miles before it finally dilutes down.”

Cuellar shared real-time readings that showed salt levels climbing as the city’s well discharge entered the river flow.

City Manager Peter Zanoni says the city’s monitoring tells a different story…one that meets all state environmental requirements.

“We are allowed by the state to introduce more saltier water into the river,” Zanoni said. “We monitor it that’s part of our requirement from TCEQ and in the last eight months we have had no issues with water quality.”

While the city maintains everything is within state limits, residents living along the river believe they’re watching the early signs of a bigger problem…one that could affect the Nueces River for years to come.