{"id":249006,"date":"2026-04-14T10:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/249006\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T10:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T10:32:11","slug":"what-does-200-years-tell-us-about-corpus-christi-and-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/249006\/","title":{"rendered":"What does 200 years tell us about Corpus Christi and water?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Corpus Christi continues a fierce fight against the impacts of record-breaking drought<\/a>, what led to this point reflects the history of hundreds of years of water development, according to an academic expert.<\/p>\n

While there are differences compared to some of the earlier political dynamics in the state \u2014 and while the stakes have grown greater \u2014 \u201cwhen I first started seeing articles about the Corpus Christi situation, I was struck immediately by this sense that sometimes things never change,\u201d said Kenna Archer, an associate professor of history at Angelo State University.<\/p>\n

Looking through a more than 200-year-old lens, Archer is set to bring her expertise to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with a presentation on April 16, offering a broad perspective of Texas\u2019 history of water development, with some ties to some local and contemporary events.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/p>\n

Lake Corpus Christi was recorded on March 5 at its historically lowest level, 9.9%.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor much of Texas\u2019 history, the focus was not on developing our water resources out of fear over water scarcity,\u201d Archer told the Caller-Times on April 9. \u201cThat’s part of why we’re struggling right now \u2014 because for so long, water development was geared towards navigation or it was geared towards irrigation, but irrigating cotton fields in the Panhandle, not necessarily thinking about water resources to prop up cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on water crisis: Surcharge exemption remains for industry through water emergency<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea of the forum is to provide the community a better contextual understanding of the city\u2019s current water issues, according to TAMU-CC associate history professor Chris Wilhem.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has a history, and many of our social and political issues are rooted in it,\u201d he stated in an April 13 email to the Caller-Times. \u201cWe invited Dr. Archer because water challenges in Corpus Christi and the Southwest run deep.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Interurban conflicts’<\/p>\n

What Archer described as \u201cinterurban conflicts\u201d over water development can be found going back as far as the 1840s, when the city of Victoria was \u201ccomplaining that they’re not getting enough support from the state or different groups to develop their bays and inlets and their passes because all the money is going to Galveston,\u201d Archer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can look at the 1850s and Corpus is making similar complaints \u2014\u00a0\u2018we are going to have to fund this by ourselves because we are not getting public money, it’s all about Houston, it\u2019s all about Galveston,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cEven in Galveston, they’re complaining that it’s all Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n

Politics are among the challenges in water development, Archer said, and can \u201cmanifest in a lot of different ways,\u201d extending state and local levels.<\/p>\n

That includes groundwater.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are going to have politics at the local level between different communities that are going to prioritize and privilege some projects over other projects,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can see this playing out, for example, in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifer projects, where the perception is that some communities will be benefited more than others and so that shapes the support sometimes you have for projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groundwater, she noted, falls under what is known as the \u201crule of capture\u201d in Texas \u2014 sometimes described, Archer said, as \u201crule of the biggest pump\u201d or her term, \u201cfinders keepers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rule of capture<\/a> means that property owners own not just the surface land area but also the water beneath the acreage, and may use it without regulation as long as the use is considered beneficial.<\/p>\n

Regulation wasn\u2019t available until the late 1940s, with the first groundwater district formed in the Panhandle in 1951, Archer said. <\/p>\n

Nueces County currently does not have a groundwater conservation district, although there have been efforts to form one since groundwater well field developments have been pursued in earnest<\/a> in the county. The now-existing well fields are currently regulated under the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery District.<\/p>\n

The Evangeline groundwater project<\/a>, meanwhile, is to be regulated by the San Patricio Municipal Water District.<\/p>\n

Water development<\/p>\n

Within the scope of history, Corpus Christi is among cities that had initially focused hydrological development on infrastructure related to shipping and navigation, such as development of the bays, inlets and jetties, Archer said \u2014 only later moving on to infrastructure more focused on water supply, such as reservoirs and dams.<\/p>\n

Like much of the state, an eye on water resources first emerged after World War II, she said.<\/p>\n

Proposals to boost supply in the 1970s ran the gamut, according to Archer \u2014 including importing water from Canada or Southern California, and a citizen\u2019s suggestion that nuclear bombs be employed to develop reservoirs.<\/p>\n

Although the upcoming forum will include discussion on some of the contemporary issues \u2014 for example, drought, groundwater, population growth and data centers \u2014 it will primarily focus on a 200-year state history, starting with Stephen F. Austin in 1821, Archer said.<\/p>\n

The disputes over water reflects the awareness of water\u2019s importance, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe become really invested in our water resources, partly because it’s something we take for granted until it’s no longer there,\u201d Archer said.<\/p>\n

Archer\u2019s presentation, titled “When the Well Goes Dry: A history of water feast, water famine and hydrological development,” is scheduled for 6 p.m. April 16 at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi\u2019s University Center, in Legacy Hall.<\/p>\n

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

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

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Water development, politics go back hundreds of years<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Corpus Christi continues a fierce fight against the impacts of record-breaking drought, what led to this point…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[70913,155,157,156,110,94619,94618,7618,410,94620,94617],"class_list":{"0":"post-249006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-archer","9":"tag-corpus-christi","10":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","11":"tag-corpus-christi-news","12":"tag-development","13":"tag-history-of-water","14":"tag-kenna-archer","15":"tag-texas-am-university-corpus-christi","16":"tag-water","17":"tag-water-challenges","18":"tag-water-development"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249006","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=249006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}