A Corpus Christi water expert tests water quality during one of several periods in the summer of 2015 when residents were told to boil water because contaminants were found in the city’s supply. Courtesy photo.
Corpus Christi recently received almost $500,000 in grant money to drill aquifer storage test wells that will evaluate the feasibility of an alternative water supply for the city. The $433,388 was awarded to the Corpus Christi Aquifer Storage and Recovery’s District by the Texas Water Development Board.
The aquifer district was formed in 2005 to facilitate aquifer storage and recovery projects. In partnership with the City of Corpus Christi’s Utilities Department, the district is tasked with finding ways to enhance water supply, treatment and distribution operations for the benefit of water customers, both retail and wholesale.
The city currently receives water from four river basins. As a regional provider of water to approximately 500,000 customers and clients in seven South Texas counties, Corpus Christi officials decided to develop a 50-year plan to find alternative water sources. That hunt was prominent in Mayor Nelda Martinez’s State of the City address Feb. 18.
“Folks, our long term water supply has proven to be the mother’s milk of our explosive $40 billion growth with our Global Economy AND our existing industry,” she said in her speech. “Long term water supply equals jobs, and we are not done yet.”
The development board grant was just one of several water initiatives she pointed out her annual address.
“We understand we have to diversify our water supplies because we are too dependent on surface water,” she said. “A concern in sustaining a surface water supply is its vulnerability to evaporation.”
Other city strategies involve water conservation, wastewater reuse, surface water, groundwater and seawater desalination.
Aquifer storage and recovery is a long term water supply strategy that can be effectively integrated into the City of Corpus Christi’s regional water supply system to achieve long range water planning goals.
“The results of this study could not only add a drought tolerant source of water,” said Martinez. “It could also add another 5 million gallons per day to our supply.”
Corpus Christi was one of three applicants out of a total of six, that received a grant. The other two were $285,112 to Victoria County Groundwater Conservation District and $281,500 to the Edwards Aquifer Authority.
