{"id":329516,"date":"2026-06-09T19:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/329516\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:18:13","slug":"emergency-permits-tied-to-evangeline-aquifer-project-denied-by-groundwater-district-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/329516\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergency permits tied to Evangeline Aquifer project denied by groundwater district board"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The project has sparked a legal fight between Corpus Christi and the communities of Sinton and St. Paul, which rely on the aquifer for daily life.<\/p>\n<p>CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 nts saying there&#8217;s no emergency, data showing that there&#8217;s no emergency, and a district being asked to use powers it does not possess to solve an emergency that doesn&#8217;t exist,&#8221; Hobson said.<\/p>\n<p>The project has sparked a legal fight between Corpus Christi and the communities of Sinton and St. Paul, which rely on the aquifer for daily life.<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kiiitv.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                This story continues below.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>For Papalote resident Tiele Dockens, the issue extends beyond water.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have a cow-calf operation, and if I don&#8217;t have water to water my cattle, then we don&#8217;t have anything. Then our property values are worth nothing. So I&#8217;m just really concerned about the evidence that has been brought forward,&#8221; Dockens said.<\/p>\n<p>Dockens also listened to testimony from a hydrogeologist during public comment and said the scientific concerns raised should not be overlooked.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When he talked about the glass and putting the straw in, it is going to draw down from the top, not just from where they&#8217;re pulling from. So that&#8217;s where it gets scary for a lot of us to think about,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Following public comment, the San Patricio County Groundwater Conservation District board considered creating rules that would allow it to issue emergency permits. The motion failed in a 3-2 vote.<\/p>\n<p>Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni said that while he understands residents&#8217; frustrations, the city does not have the luxury of waiting.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have had a little reprieve with the rain, but given that we have a huge customer base crossing seven counties, we don&#8217;t want to mess around with time,&#8221; Zanoni said.<\/p>\n<p>Sinton Mayor Mary Speidel, a leading opponent of the project, said she was surprised by the board&#8217;s decision.<\/p>\n<p>With the emergency permits off the table, Speidel said the city will continue its contested case and move forward through the standard hearing process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The project has sparked a legal fight between Corpus Christi and the communities of Sinton and St. Paul,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-329516","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\/329516","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=329516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}