CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
District 3 City Council Member Eric Cantu is pushing Corpus Christi to ease its water restrictions, questioning why the city has not moved from Stage 2 to Stage 1 under its own drought contingency plan.
Combined lake levels have sat above 40% for the past couple of weeks, which meets the threshold for a Stage 1 declaration.
"Why is it so hard to give the residents water?" Cantu said.
Cantu pressed the issue further, pointing to the city's own policy as justification for the move.
"We need to go to Stage 1 it's our policy. Why make policy if we're not going to follow our own policy?" Cantu said.
Corpus Christi moved to Stage 2 water restrictions two weeks ago, allowing automatic lawn watering every other week. City Manager Peter Zanoni made that declaration and holds the authority to move to Stage 1.
When asked last week whether he would consider relaxing water restrictions in the near future, Zanoni said the city wants to remain cautious.
"We wanna be more cautious and say let's stay in Stage 2. Our models show that we'll be in 40% in a couple of weeks anyway. That plus the long-term forecast. Not only the long but also the short and the midrange forecast all are expected to be drier than normal." Zanoni said on August 12.
Council Member Gil Hernandez added that it is difficult to ease restrictions while the city is simultaneously asking the state for a temporary stop to water releases.
"It's kind of hard to ask for dispensation on that while you're increasing your water usage." Hernandez said.
On the desalination front, two separate projects are expected to come before the council on September 1. A vote is scheduled on Inner Harbor desalination, and the Nueces River Authority (NRA) — the agency responsible for the Harbor Island desalination project — is also expected to present an update.
Mayor Pro Tem Kaylynn Paxson said she requested the additional presentation.
"I have asked staff to get a presentation from IDE on our agenda for September 1st. They have been recently selected by the NRA to build a marine desalination option on Harbor Island." Paxson said.
Council Member Mark Scott said the timing of the two presentations appearing together was not a coincidence, and expressed reservations about the Harbor Island proposal's readiness.
"Inner Harbor comes back September 1st. Harbor Island is really months away from having any real review. I think it's premature to put it on the agenda." Scott said.
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