Corpus Christi city leaders are in a race against the clock to find or create new sources of water ahead of November. That’s when Corpus Christi Water officials project the city — and much of the Coastal Bend — will hit a stage 1 water emergency, which will force mandatory curtailment of water usage. And it will also mark the moment when Corpus Christi is about six months away from not having enough water to meet demand.
As a result, during its meeting on Tuesday, February 17, the Corpus Christi City Council approved more than $400 million in emergency expenditures aimed at building water capacity fast.
Among the approvals was a $43.5 million award to build a “containerized brackish water treatment plant” at the O.N. Stevens Water Treatment Plant and major amendments to the design and construction contracts associated with the Evangeline Groundwater Project, which aims to dig dozens of groundwater wells across the Coastal Bend…