{"id":203952,"date":"2026-03-14T02:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/203952\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T02:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T02:18:11","slug":"corpus-christi-is-not-running-out-of-water-city-manager-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/203952\/","title":{"rendered":"Corpus Christi is ‘not running out of water,’ city manager says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corpus Christi officials are hoping to dispel portrayals of the city, its water situation<\/a> and the timeline that a water emergency would be possible.<\/p>\n

For months, a model has shown the city entering into a water emergency in November.<\/p>\n

A water emergency would be called when the city\u2019s total water supply falls short of meeting demand. It would require curtailment, which is the forced reduction of water use.<\/p>\n

City Manager Peter Zanoni, in a March 13 media briefing, said a series of five new models \u2014 expanding from a single scenario \u2014 have been in development to better project the potential for a future water emergency, ranging from worst-case to best-case scenarios.<\/p>\n

The new models take into account more accurate data on contributing factors such as accelerated evaporation rates, permitting dates and a timeline on when different water supply projects could come online, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Corpus<\/p>\n

Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni briefs media on the city’s water situation on March 13.<\/p>\n

One of them doesn\u2019t assume any rainfall, Zanoni said. <\/p>\n

He described some of the models as being \u201cmisinterpreted\u201d recently \u2014 for example, that curtailment could come as soon as May.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s not the case,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a range of probability on when that level 1 emergency could be called.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the models shows the city not reaching curtailment at all, Zanoni said.<\/p>\n

Water supply crisis: Corpus Christi leaders respond after governor’s criticism on water<\/a><\/p>\n

The modeled scenarios were not provided during the briefing. They are expected to be presented during a City Council meeting on March 17.<\/p>\n

Additional data would be collected through the weekend, Zanoni said.<\/p>\n

There is possibility that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality may issue a draft permit for one of the city\u2019s Nueces County groundwater wells on March 13, he added \u2014 a change that would impact the models.<\/p>\n

He highlighted ongoing water supply projects, including two groundwater<\/a> well fields in Nueces County, a groundwater well field in San Patricio County<\/a> and industrial effluent reuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The projects are either complete, in design, in construction or preparing to launch construction, according to city officials.<\/p>\n

However, permits needed<\/a> for one of the Nueces County groundwater wells and the proposed well field near Sinton haven\u2019t been secured.<\/p>\n

Permitting from the state and the San Patricio Groundwater Conservation District are the only significant, but missing, pieces for two of the projects, Zanoni said.<\/p>\n

The city is doing what is within its power to do, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last holdup that we’re working through right now in a few of those projects is unfortunately a piece of paper,\u201d Zanoni said.<\/p>\n

Seawater desalination: Corpus Christi leaders reconsider desal plant as questions remain<\/a><\/p>\n

City officials have said that the projects, should all go forward, total additional 76 million gallons of water added to supply. Investment in the past year has reached about $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Although the combined capacity of Lake Corpus Christi<\/a> and Choke Canyon Reservoir<\/a> measured 8.7% as of March 13, the city has largely been relying on water delivered through the Mary Rhodes Pipeline from the Colorado River and Lake Texana.<\/p>\n

Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Consider supporting local journalism with a\u00a0subscription to the Caller-Times<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Officials say some representations of water emergency are inaccurate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corpus Christi officials are hoping to dispel portrayals of the city, its water situation and the timeline that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[74853,155,157,156,410,9872,2646],"class_list":["post-203952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-city-manager-peter-zanoni","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-water","tag-water-emergency","tag-water-supply"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203952","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=203952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}