City of Corpus Christi officials want to build on the water gained in the area's lakes in recent weeks by temporarily pausing requirements for water to “pass through” the Wesley Seale Dam into the Nueces Bay.
They hope that state officials will grant an emergency suspension of those rules for either six months or until the combined capacity of Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir reaches 50%, whichever comes first, according to documentation filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
As of Aug. 13, the capacity of Lake Corpus Christi — at its lowest in May, measuring about 8% full — stood at nearly 92%, according to city data. Choke Canyon Reservoir, at its lowest also about 8%, was reported at 24%.
Current levels combined,
that’s 43%, a stat that is significant in that it prompted the city to downgrade Stage 3 drought restrictions — called when the combined capacities dip below 20% — to Stage 2.
In an Aug. 11 letter to the TCEQ, City Manager Peter Zanoni stated, though, that the “reservoir conditions remain precarious.”
“This modest improvement does not eliminate risk; it simply places the region slightly above the point where disaster lever curtailments were recently contemplated,” he wrote, later adding that “barring significant new rainfall, our water supply will again begin to decline.”
An agreement between the city of Three Rivers, the Nueces River Authority, the city of Corpus Christi and the state calls for the city to “pass through” a certain amount of water each month.
The pass-thrus act as environmental flows to maintain the health of the estuaries.
City officials have previously described them as aiming to “mimic the natural flows of the rivers prior to the man-made dams that impacted the flow.”
The agreement, brokered in 2001, doesn’t require the pass-thrus when the combined capacity of Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir descend below 30%.
There haven’t been pass-thrus for about a year and a half, according to Zanoni’s letter.
In his letter to TCEQ, he wrote that under the order, the city would be required to allow what equated to 48 million gallons of water per day to pass through.
“The water use is equivalent to adding seven new refineries, making it the largest single user in our regional water supply system,” Zanoni wrote.
There haven’t been pass-thrus yet this month, he wrote in an Aug. 13 message to the Caller-Times.
If TCEQ’s executive director approved the request, it would be effective immediately, according to Zanoni; however, the TCEQ commission at a meeting would need to affirm the director’s decision for it to remain effective.
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Corpus Christi wants to pause rules for releasing water into Nueces Bay
