The city will distribute 27,000 cases of free water sometime Dec. 15 at four drive-through locations to be announced later. One case of water will be given per car.
An anonymous donor is shipping 27,000 cases of bottled water to Corpus Christi this afternoon, Dec. 15, to distribute free to city residents. Four different drive-through distributions pods will be set up to provide one case per car, announced city spokesperson Kim Womack at a 1 p.m. media briefing.
More free water is on the way from nearby communities, the state government and other sources.
“We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of support coming from other cities around the state,” Womack said. No new information was available about the cause of the leak or the results of state water-quality tests taken by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Although the city is not releasing the name of the company responsible for the back-flow problem that resulted in contamination, one TV station reported the company’s name. According to the station, a council member said the company was Ergon Asphalt & Emulsions, Inc. which is located at 6746 Up River Road in an industrial area of the city.
Shouts went up from the back of the room the second Womack closed the media conference.
“What do we want!” chanted a a young man. “Clean water!” shouted back about 15 people who attended the meeting. The answer changed to “Information!” after repeated questions to the city council members attending, which included Carolyn Vaughn, Rudy Garza and Ben Molina.
The group wanted to know how the city would get water to those without transportation and the disabled and elderly. The city is working on a plan to get water to everyone, Garza answered.
A local group has been protesting in front of city hall all day Dec. 15. They plan a 3 p.m. protest and are asking residents to bring their water bills to burn on the steps of city hall. The group is an offshoot of the Water Protectors, which was formed to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
“We need to show up in our own communities, especially now when the oil companies are poisoning us, literally,” reads a notice of the protest on their Facebook page.
Erin Handy, a member of the group who was not at the 1 p.m. media conference, said she planned to be at the 3 p.m. protest.
“I am protesting the fact that we have these corporate interests that are polluting our water with seemingly zero accountability,” she told Corpus Christi Business News. “In my opinion, it’s criminal and it needs to stop. We need to hold our elected officials, who work for us, accountable. We need to let them know we are holding them accountable.” The city will be holding another media conference at 4 p.m. but will release water distributions sites as soon as they have that information.
