As temperatures rise, city officials are concerned about levels at Lake Corpus Christi.
“The City of Corpus Christi continues to monitor the inflows and lake levels on a daily basis,” said Steve Ramos, City Water Resource Manager.
Lake levels aren’t just affected by the heat, a lack of rain earlier this year has added to the drought.
“We didn’t get a lot of the rain in early April, May that we had the year before,” said Ramos. “So we started with the glass a little lower than we did in 2017.”
The combined capacity of Lake Corpus Christi and the Choke Canyon Reservoir currently sits at 40.7%. phase one of the city’s Drought Contingency Plan kicks in when the capacity goes below 40%.
According to the city’s Ramos, without the additional water sources from Lake Texana and the Colorado River via the Mary Rhodes pipeline, combined lake capacity would have gone below 40% weeks ago.
“Without those additional sources the city and citizens invested in a long time ago, we would have entered into a drought sooner,” said Ramos.
Even with that extra water, city officials plan on the drought plan kicking in soon.
“We’re still anticipating within the next 2-3 weeks going in to stage one of the Drought Contingency Plan,” said Ramos.
City officials also want people to conserve water whenever possible. One reminder, is no watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
