Why Corpus Christi faces a looming water scarcity, and what may assist

Corpus Christi, Texas, dwelling to the nation’s largest oil export hub, and its surrounding Coastal Bend space are in a water scarcity that has residents, companies, and business fastidiously monitoring their water use and anxious a couple of rising disaster.

Since August 2024, the town’s 318,000 residents have been unable to water their lawns and have been restricted of their skill to water gardens or wash their boats and vehicles.

Without vital rainfall, the town’s authorities could need to declare a water emergency as soon as December 2026. This would require households to restrict their water use to 6,000 gallons per month (22,700 liters), two-thirds of the average U.S. family’s water use.

I study hydrology and water resources at the University of Texas at Arlington. As a part of my analysis, I’m creating laptop fashions to inform flood and drought planning in the Coastal Bend region.

Officials have been exploring options, together with some with the potential to a minimum of briefly ease the water disaster. But fixing the area’s long-term water issues will probably require main investments, notably as its industries increase.

Fickle provides

The metropolis of Corpus Christi offers 65% of the region’s water supply, serving over 500,000 residents and large industrial customers.

Most of the town’s water comes from rainfall and runoff in three river basins: the Nueces, the Lavaca-Navidad and the Colorado. Water is saved in Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi within the Nueces basin. This is supplemented by water transported by way of the Mary Rhodes Pipeline from the Colorado River channel and from Lake Texana within the Lavaca-Navidad basin.

The Nueces basin has been experiencing widespread drought circumstances since late 2021, resulting in very low water ranges in Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi. As of May 2026, these reservoirs are at about 8% of their combined capacity. As a end result, the town has had to attract extra water from the Colorado River and Lake Texana, which as of March 2026 supply about 73% of the city’s water. Water ranges in Lake Texana have been declining since mid-2025, resulting in issues about additional reductions in water availability, however latest rain has replenished a number of the provide.

Growing demand

Coinciding with the long-term drought, the area has seen substantial industrial progress, spurred by the expansion of the Port of Corpus Christi. From 2013 to 2023, the port’s trade value more than doubled, partially on account of increased fracking for oil and natural gas in West Texas and the 2015 loosening of oil-export restrictions. The port is now the nation’s No. 1 exporter of crude oil.

In the late 2010s, because the port’s progress attracted water-intensive petrochemical industries to the Coastal Bend, metropolis workers informed firms there could be enough water to meet their needs.

To fulfill that rising demand, the town knew it might need new water supplies to be obtainable by 2023. But the town has not developed new water sources since 2016.

Plans for a desalination plant that might flip ocean water into recent water have been within the works for nearly a decade, promising a drought-resistant water provide for the area. Between 2017 and 2024, the city received more than US$750 million in loans from the state to plan, design and construct the plant. But in September 2025, the City Council scrapped the plans, citing rising prices, which had ballooned to $1.2 billion. This left the town scrambling to develop various provides to deal with the present scarcity.

Finding extra water

The metropolis is working to make its water provide much less reliant on floor water, which relies on rainfall and is delicate to the consequences of drought.

Groundwater wells drilled deep underground alongside the Nueces River are already supplying approximately 12 million gallons per day (45.4 million liters) to complement floor water provides.

The metropolis can also be pursuing permits to put in wells within the Evangeline aquifer positioned to its north to extract as much as 24 million gallons per day (91 million liters), beginning as early as November 2026. However, neighboring communities are involved that Corpus Christi’s pumping may deplete their groundwater provides, they usually have filed paperwork seeking to block the city’s permit request for the Evangeline venture.

Even if the deliberate venture turns into operational, groundwater provides aren’t proof against drought. Without adequate rainfall, groundwater aquifers aren’t replenished, which means water ranges will proceed to drop and deeper wells will probably be wanted to succeed in the diminishing provide.

Reclaiming sewage

The metropolis can also be planning to make use of handled wastewater from its sewage plant for industrial cooling, irrigation, and different purposes that do not include drinking or food preparation. Normally, that water has been discharged into native creeks and bays.

Several firms, together with oil giants Valero and Flint Hill Resources, have agreed to make use of reclaimed water at their services rather than drinkable water that’s extra purified than what they really want. The design for the pipes and pumping station wanted to produce this water is predicted to be accomplished in June 2026, with an initial 1 million gallons per day available in October 2026 and as much as 16 million gallons per day (60.5 million liters) when the venture is totally constructed.

And regardless of the City Council’s vote in 2025, there are nonetheless plans within the works for desalination. The metropolis is contemplating buying water from a desalination plant owned by a local company, Corpus Christi Polymers. Construction of this plant is almost full, and permits have already been acquired to function the ability. The costs have not yet been negotiated, however the plant may provide roughly 8 million gallons per day (30.2 million liters) of water inside a 12 months, if the town decides to maneuver ahead.

The metropolis can also be contemplating resurrecting the plans for the original desalination plant or figuring out areas for added vegetation, although questions stay about how a lot these services would price. There are additionally issues about how the wastewater discharged from desalination, which usually contains high concentrations of minerals, would hurt fish, shellfish and different animals if not combined effectively with present water in Corpus Christi Bay.

In the quick time period, residents and companies will proceed to face obligatory restrictions on water use, a minimum of till rainfall circumstances enhance or new provides are developed.

Over the long run, planning might want to keep in mind the potential for a unbroken drought and the consequences of local weather change, which is projected to cause longer and more severe dry spells. Those efforts will allow extra correct estimates of the reliability of present or deliberate water provides and inform how a lot water is offered to allocate for numerous makes use of transferring ahead.