Corpus Christi Delays Water Emergency to December
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- Corpus Christi postponed its projected Level 1 water emergency from September to December, with COO Nicholas Winkelmann of Corpus Christi Water calling the recent rainfall "positive news" and the city previously moving the date from November to May to September as drought deepened.
- Lake Texana, the smallest of the city's three reservoirs, rebounded from record lows after receiving its first inflows in eight months; the lake is currently 55% full, though still projected to drop to 30% this summer.
- Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi combined sit at roughly 8% full, with Choke Canyon logging zero major inflow events in 15 years and Lake Corpus Christi seeing no inflows in five years — and Choke Canyon has not been full since 2008.
- NOAA's Climate Prediction Center forecasts "increased probabilities of a strong to very strong El Niño" this fall, and the article notes record-warm Pacific waters could produce the strongest El Niño in a century, potentially delivering the wet weather that ended the 2011-2014 Texas drought in 2015.
- A state administrative judge sent the permits for Corpus Christi's largest emergency water project, in Sinton about 25 miles north, into a hearing process that could take years, even though the city had said it needed the project producing by November.
- Corpus Christi is advancing a groundwater desalination plant capable of treating up to 21 million gallons per day, and the City Council is set to vote June 2 on a $978 million plan to revive a seawater desalination plant that was cancelled in September.
- NWS Corpus Christi lead meteorologist Juan Peña drew a distinction reporters often blur: "We are in drought, but we also have the water shortage. Drought is … short-term. The water shortage is more long-term."
Why it matters: Corpus Christi has cycled through three emergency-trigger projections in roughly six months (November, May, September, now December), reflecting how thin the margin is: its two main reservoirs are at about 8% combined and three major emergency supply projects — Sinton pipeline, Nueces River wells, and a revived seawater desalination plant needing $978 million — are all delayed, with the city now betting its water future on a forecast "super El Niño" that historically ended drought but also caused catastrophic Texas flooding in 2015.
