Both the City of Sinton and the City of Corpus Christi made their arguments Wednesday in San Patricio County.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 The ongoing legal battle over the Evangeline Aquifer is centered on a proposal by city leaders to pump water from it as one of the solutions to the region\u2019s water crisis. Others say such a move could impact wells, land, and long-term aquifer health.<\/p>\n
Both the City of Sinton and the City of Corpus Christi made their arguments Wednesday in San Patricio County.<\/p>\n
Residents packed the San Patricio County Annex Building in Sinton to hear whether the City of Corpus Christi will be allowed to move forward with the Evangeline Water Well Project, which is located near Sinton.<\/p>\n
San Patricio County rancher Charles Ring said if the project moves forward, it would decimate his livelihood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a 20 percent piece of my operation. That’s how much I can irrigate. It does affect me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ring said he is not the only one who could be impacted.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest issue is parameters and keeping it in control. Right of capture allows them to drill and pump water. So it’s a matter of how much and how much it affects their neighbors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A hydrogeologist also spoke at the hearing about potential impacts to the aquifer, including decreased water levels and increased salinity.<\/p>\n
However, under cross-examination, legal counsel representing Corpus Christi argued the testimony was speculative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project is very critical to make sure industry and communities continue to thrive here,\u201d said Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni.<\/p>\n
Zanoni said the forward progress of the Evangeline Project is the only thing standing between the city and a major supply gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupply may not meet demand if nothing else changes in our model. Then we would go into a level one water emergency in September,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The mayor of Sinton and the city manager were also at Wednesday\u2019s hearing but declined to comment as they await an official ruling.<\/p>\n
A decision is expected within 10 business days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both the City of Sinton and the City of Corpus Christi made their arguments Wednesday in San Patricio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-270794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270794","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=270794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}