CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — There's a high chance that the city could be pulling the trigger on entering Stage 2 restrictions any day now, but that brings into question of what about water the city provides to areas outside of Corpus Christi.
City officials spoke with 3NEWS and said the contracts in place are legally binding, meaning, the city has an obligation to make sure water is delivered to those areas.
They added that drought restrictions will not impact that service.
Brian Williams is the general manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District. He said that due to the county being a water customer of Corpus Christi, it follows suit with the city.
"We are contractually obligated to follow the lead of Corpus Christi as far as restrictions go," Williams said. "We are currently in Stage One, just like the city of Corpus Christi."
Alice city manager Michael Esparza said that while their contract with Corpus Christi Water is not impacted by drought restrictions their area does do things a little differently than others when it comes to lake levels.
"Their using the combined lake levels of Choke Canyon and Lake Corpus Christ," Esparza said. "They're using percentages and we're using lake levels of just one."
He said that because the city gets a bulk of their water from Lake Findley, they don't need as much water from local lakes and reservoirs.
"In the winter months we may not purchase water every month, so we may go a month without pumping water," Esparza said. "So our triggers, we try to keep Lake Findley. We have Lake Corpus Christi going up and down a little bit and we have Lake Findley going up and down a little bit."
While City of Corpus Christi officials weren't available to speak on camera, they did provide 3NEWS with a statement that explained that all customers are impacted by its water restrictions.
Below is the full statement from the City of Corpus Christi:
"All Corpus Christi Water customers are impacted by water restrictions per the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP). The DCP is a planning document required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). In Stage 1 water restrictions, the City’s DCP limits non-essential outdoor water use, or irrigation, to 1x per week before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. for residential customers, commercial customers, institutional customers, and large-volume customers. Wholesale water contract customers are contractually required to follow CCW’s DCP or adopt a similar one of their own."
During times like these, Corpus Christi Councilman Roland Barrera said it boils down to conservation.
"Those contracts won't be specifically effected but we'll work with them and their customers to be able to conserve."
As a reminder, in Stage 1 of the Drought Contingency Plan, non essential outdoor water use is limited to one time per week before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
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