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Nueces County has declared a local disaster as the region moves closer to a Level 1 water emergency.<\/p>\n
The Nueces County Commissioners Court issued an Emergency Water Disaster Declaration on Thursday, April 30, stating that the move allows the county to utilize \u201call available resources from the state\u201d \u2013 allowing for a more coordinated effort to locally activate emergency plans amid the water crisis.<\/p>\n
In a news release from the office of Nueces County Judge Connie Scott, the judge said, \u201cThe Nueces County government is fully aware that our community is facing severe and ongoing drought conditions that have significantly reduced our available water supply.\u201d<\/p>\n
Port Aransas Mayor Wendy Moore said that the April 30 disaster declaration was the right move by the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy declaring the entire county in a state of emergency, it could very well enable us to get any kind of economic funding for projects that could be necessary to take the next step,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWhat that next step would be is obviously determined on what the Nueces County water district (WCID No. 4) decides to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, the region is in Stage 3 drought restrictions. Port Aransas entered Stage 3 in December of 2024.<\/p>\n
The declaration from Nueces County, which follows a similar declaration by the state earlier this month, does not change or alter those restrictions. During the April 20 Commissioner\u2019s Court, county officials said the declaration was made to instead \u201cstabilize water access\u201d while preparing for worsening drought conditions in the coming months.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, April 21, Corpus Christi Water Chief Operating Officer Nick Winkelmann presented a new model projection to the city council, showing that a Level 1 water emergency could be triggered by September \u2013 depending on drought conditions and the City of Corpus Christi\u2019s ongoing efforts to add new sources to its water supplies.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday, April 28, the combined western water supply levels (from Lake Corpus Christi and the Choke Canyon Reservoir) were at 7.8 percent of total capacity. To the east, Lake Texana had risen nearly 10 percent in a week. The lake level now sits at 64.6 percent of capacity.<\/p>\n
The Corpus Christi City Council is still deliberating new curtailment policies for when a Level 1 water emergency is activated. However, councilmembers have signaled support for a 25 percent curtailment, which is a mandatory reduction of water use and is activated when supply is within 180 days of not meeting demand. That move could result in surcharges.<\/p>\n
Whatever Corpus Christi decides, Port Aransas would follow suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents should be vigilant and should try to conserve water as much as possible and follow any orders that come from the water district,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI think we, as a community, are really doing our part in being proactive.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the county, a disaster declaration is its own effort to be proactive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the City of Corpus Christi is the regional water provider and the County is not involved in their water decisions, we realize it is our responsibility to do our part when it comes to conservation,\u201d the statement explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2026encourage all community members to take an active role by reducing their water usage,\u201d Scott said in the news release. \u201cBy working together, we can more effectively plan for the future and support recovery from our current water crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The local order, which is effective immediately, will remain so until the county judge formally lifts it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nueces County has declared a local disaster as the region moves closer to a Level 1 water emergency.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-273354","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\/273354","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=273354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}