PORTLAND, Texas — The Portland City Council is actively exploring ways to secure its own water supply, moving to potentially gain independence from the City of Corpus Christi and Corpus Christi Water.
During an October workshop, city leaders heard stark warnings and a range of options, from desalination to new groundwater projects, to achieve what Mayor Cathy Skurow called "water independence."
“It is now necessary for Portland to begin the process toward water independence to ensure that our residents and businesses have a reliable, sustainable water supply for the future,” Mayor Skurow stated at the October meeting. “Time is no longer on our side.”
Skurow also underscored the urgency, stressing that long-term water reliability is now a “top priority” for the council.
The sense of urgency was fueled by data presented by Brian Williams, General Manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District, which purchases water from Corpus Christi for Portland.
He showed that combined reservoir levels, as of October 21, in the Nueces Basin were at 11.6%, with Choke Canyon Reservoir at just 10.9%.
Potential options discussed include reserving 2.5 million gallons per day from the Nueces River Authority’s proposed Harbor Island desalination plant and pursuing brackish groundwater desalination through public-private partnerships.
Portland's City Manager, Randy Wright, framed the workshop as the start of a critical process. “We want to make the right decisions here, but we are facing a critical shortage and time is of the essence, so we’ve got to get these things done sooner rather than later,” Wright said.
Wright added that diversification is no longer optional. “We’ve depended on a single source of water for decades,” Wright told KRIS 6 News. “Our goal now is to have multiple sources so that when these droughts hit, and they always hit, we’re not left without anywhere to turn.”
He also emphasized that the city is working toward long-term solutions, not quick fixes. “We’re planning not just for today but for the next 25, 50, even 75 years,” Wright told KRIS 6 News. “Portland residents can be confident we’re looking over the horizon.”
Wright noted that nothing discussed would prevent Portland from continuing to purchase water from Corpus Christi, but said the city wants the ability to withstand future shortages. “We want good partnerships,” Wright told KRIS 6 News. “But we also want resiliency.”
The council is expected to move quickly, with plans to issue a request for qualifications for engineering firms and potential water project partners in the coming weeks.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
Catch all the KRIS 6 News stories and more on our YouTube page. Subscribe today!
