CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Governor Greg Abbott made it clear he is very aware of Corpus Christi's on going water crisis and also made it clear he is not happy with how it has been handled.
During a campaign stop to talk about property taxes in Manor, near Austin, the Governor was asked if he was monitoring the water situation in Corpus Christi.
His response was heated.
"So listen, we've been doing more than monitoring it we've been actively involved in it going back a long time. Know this, and there's we saw in advance we were actually working with Corpus Christi in advance. We provided them with$750 million.03 quarters of a billion dollars in funding for them to address their water problem. You know what they did? They squandered it and then they changed their plan and then they were indecisive about what to do. Corpus Christi is a victim not because of lack of water. They're a victim because of a lack of ability to make a decision. What Corpus Christi leaders have to do is make a decision. We can only give them a little time more before the state of Texas has to take over and micromanage that city and run that city to make sure that every resident who goes to the the water tap and turns it on, they're going to be getting water out of their faucet ,not because of what local leaders are doing, but because of what the state of Texas will do. We're fully committed to making sure the Corpus Christi residents are going to have the water they need to live their lives like the rest of the people in the state of Texas."
KRIS6 News reached out to the City of Corpus Christi and City Manager Peter Zanoni replied stating:
"We are deeply grateful for prior and continued support from Governor Abbott and his Office to help Corpus Christi advance water security for the coastal bend.
This includes assistance in developing $1 billion in recent City Council approved water supply projects.
Additionally, continued support from the Governor and his team as well as from our state delegation and state agencies like TCEQ and TWDB for our Inner Harbor Desalination project will only continue to ensure greater water security for our region."
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