The American Water Crisis Is Here

No modern American city

has ever run out of water,

but that could be about to change.

City officials in Corpus Christi,

the eighth largest city in Texas,

say that the city is due to reach

a Level 1 drought emergency

where water demand outpaces supply for 180 days

by September.

Municipal water sources

could run dry by next year.

So how did we get here?

Two of the city's most important water sources,

the Choke Canyon Reservoir

and Lake Corpus Christi,

have reached critically low levels due to drought.

As of April 30th, they are sitting at 6.9% full

and 8.8% full respectively.

Corpus Christi is a major petrochemical hub.

The largest industrial consumer of water in the area

is a joint ExxonMobil

and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation plastics plant.

Between 2022 and 2024,

the plant used about 13.5 million gallons of water per day.

Compare that with the roughly 6,000 gallons per month

for the average household in the region.

Corpus Christi's, 316,000 residents

have been under water-use restrictions,

including limits on lawn watering

and car washing, since 2023.

For years, city officials

discussed building a desalination plant

to supply industrial users like Exxon,

but projected costs rose above $1 billion

and residents expressed concerns

about the ecological impacts.

Officials ultimately rejected the plan last year

with no backup plan for water supply in place.

This week, the Office of Texas Governor, Greg Abbott,

also declined additional funding

for a separate desalination project.

There might be some short-term relief

for Corpus Christi on the horizon.

Recent rainfall has boosted water levels in Lake Texana,

one of the city's key sources,

and the upcoming El Nino phenomenon,

forecast to be one of the most intense on record,

could bring a stronger monsoon season this summer.

But Corpus Christi demonstrates what can happen

when you combine a slow-building water crisis

with climate change and industrial overuse.

Human-caused climate change

is pushing cities to breaking point,

and forcing millions of people,

multiple states and entire nations

to rethink how they use water.