CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Corpus Christi officials are formally responding to KRIS 6 News reporting that the city\u2019s Evangeline groundwater project is now expected to deliver far less water in the near term than previously presented, as protests prevent permits from being issued and push the project into a legal process that could take weeks or months.<\/p>\n
City leaders say the San Patricio County Groundwater Conservation District is not expected to issue permits at its Friday hearing because formal protests remain active.<\/p>\n
City leaders say protests will delay permits for the Evangeline groundwater project as they respond to new reporting showing the project will deliver far less water than previously expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know for certain now that tomorrow, the district won\u2019t issue permits for this project \u2026 because their rules say if there\u2019s a \u2026 protest \u2026 then they can\u2019t issue the permits,\u201d City Manager Peter Zanoni said during a media briefing.<\/p>\n
Officials say the city is pursuing two tracks: negotiating directly with remaining protesters in hopes they withdraw their objections, while also preparing for the next procedural step if talks fail.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two possible scenarios that we\u2019re working on simultaneously,\u201d Zanoni said. If the city can sit down with protesters and address their concerns, he said, \u201cthen they may withdraw their protests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zanoni said the number of formal protesters has already decreased since filings earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonday at 5, there were five protests,\u201d he said. \u201cBy yesterday, it dropped to four.\u201d<\/p>\n
If protests are not withdrawn, city leaders say the next step would be a preliminary hearing before a judge to determine whether protesters have legal standing \u2014 a process Zanoni estimated could take one to two months before the issue returns to the groundwater board.<\/p>\n
Zanoni also criticized what he described as a breakdown in communication with the City of Sinton, one of the entities protesting the permits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve kind of shut down communications with us \u2026 which is really unfortunate because we think we can resolve their concerns,\u201d Zanoni said. He added that the city has been reaching out regularly. \u201cWe\u2019ve reached out to the manager and the mayor pretty routinely every \u2026 week or so since October,\u201d he said. \u201cThey pretty much refuse to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s response comes after KRIS 6 News reported that Evangeline\u2019s near-term production expectation has shifted from an earlier goal of 12 million gallons per day to about 4 million gallons per day by November \u2014 a change that raises new questions about how much the project can help the city avoid additional water restrictions later this year.<\/p>\n
Zanoni said the revised estimate reflects updated design and construction realities rather than the protests, describing the earlier figure as a goal set before engineering reached a more advanced stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal \u2026 was we want 12 million gallons by November,\u201d he said. But as the project reached roughly 60% design and contractors began sourcing materials, he said the timeline changed. \u201cThey have now realistically told us, based on 60% design, we can bring 4 million on in November.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials said the project would then ramp up toward the earlier 12-million-gallons-per-day target, but not until 2027 under the original permitting timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would have been in \u2026 the second quarter of \u2026 2027,\u201d Corpus Christi Water Interim C.O.O. Nick Winkelman said, noting the schedule was \u201cpredicated on having permits February 6.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on what the lower output and permitting delays mean for the city\u2019s ability to avoid Level One water curtailment, Zanoni acknowledged increased risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to brush it off that this increases the risk of getting past November \u2014 that\u2019s without any doubt,\u201d Zanoni said. \u201cBecause the more water projects we have that can come online in different periods, the better it lowers the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
City leaders emphasized that Evangeline is part of a broader strategy and said additional groundwater projects are intended to reduce risk. Zanoni said, \u201cWe can\u2019t get out of this drought with just one project,\u201d and described the city\u2019s approach as \u201call of the above,\u201d relying on multiple groundwater projects rather than a single solution.<\/p>\n
Corpus Christi City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a separate groundwater item tied to expanding the city\u2019s western well field along the Nueces River to include additional wells on private land. Officials say that effort, along with other projects, could help meet demand as the Evangeline permit process plays out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Corpus Christi officials are formally responding to KRIS 6 News reporting that the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3029,155,157,156,10904,63351,63352,63353,2904,1906],"class_list":{"0":"post-153101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-city-of-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi","10":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","11":"tag-corpus-christi-news","12":"tag-corpus-christi-water","13":"tag-evangeline-groundwater-deal","14":"tag-evangeline-laguna-llc","15":"tag-nick-winkelman","16":"tag-peter-zanoni","17":"tag-suzanne-stevens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}