CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
When you open your ballot, you'll see Proposition B, which begins by asking whether "Article IX for the city charter be amended to terminate and prohibit programs that exempt large industrial water users from drought surcharges."
Behind all those big words is a simpler way to describe Prop B.
Proposition B, otherwise known as the "Fair Water Amendment."
It's an amendment to the city charter that would eliminate a "drought surcharge exemption fee" for large volume water users.
In a drought, if a regular person, a small business like a restaurant, or a refinery uses more water than they are allowed, they could be subject to paying extra for overusing the water.
Industrial water users like the refineries pay 31 cents extra for every 1,000 gallons of water they use. Paying that keeps them from having to pay the potential fees that would come in a drought.
Chloe Torres, the Coastal Bend regional coordinator for the Texas Campaign for the Environment, is one of the people who worked to secure over 12,000 verified signatures to add this to the ballot.
"Prop B is fundamentally about making sure that all water customers are paying into the same rules, playing by the same rules," she said.
Roland Barrera, a Corpus Christi City Council member at-large, sees it differently.
"You have these organizations that are outside Corpus Christi that are basically trying to stop the growth of industry. What they've done is created this initiative with local activists that have put this referendum against our economy and industry," Barrera said.
Torres and Barrera, despite their difference of opinion, both agree that industrial customers use more water than residents do.
"How much more of a financial burden are we going to place on residents when we're not the main users of water?" Torres said.
But Barrera argued the measure does little to protect residents.
"I don't think it has anything to do with basically providing water for residential ratepayers because their water was always preserved. If the majority of our water goes to industry then we have to cut back... then the majority of cutback is going to be from those individuals," Barrera said.
You can read more about Proposition B and the drought surcharge exemption fee at this link.
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