LIVE: Corpus Christi Weekly Water Brief

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-16

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[00:17:22]Hello. Okay. Sorry about that. Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. We do apologize for the delay in start time. Sometimes I'll say new technology is great but sometimes it's not. So thank you so much. Um we appreciate you for being here today. I do want to say that today we're going to give some important updates. The city manager will review all of the things that have been moving forward this week.

[00:17:46]Then after that, um after the summary is provided, Gabby will provide a Spanish version of the summary this morning.

[00:17:52]Afterward, we will open the floor for questions from the media. When we get to the media Q&A, please wait for the microphone to reach you and then we that way we can broadcast and our audience can hear you. So now it is my pleasure to introduce city manager Peter Zenoni.

[00:18:06]Thank you.

[00:18:10]Okay, great. Good morning everyone and Cecilia, thank you for that introduction. As Cecilia said, I'm Peter Zenoni, the city manager for the city of Corpus Christi and also representing Corpus Christi Water. So this morning, we want to begin by thanking uh the media that's here. We do have Chris Oops, we do have Chris 6 here with us, Rachel Clow. Uh we also have Michael Salazar from Chris 6. And then we have Sean Merritt as well who's here uh who has a Facebook page.

[00:18:40]We want to continue to thank the community and others who are listening live and watching live. This is an important topic and these weekly briefings um help with our water situation.

[00:18:53]So as Cecilia said, we have several major updates we want to go over today, including policy that city council will consider on Tuesday. uh that would be used if we go into a level one water emergency.

[00:19:08]But before we get there, uh let me talk a little bit about our water capacity.

[00:19:13]And so we have improvement uh since last week on our water capacity. Lake Corpus Christi is up from a week ago and today as of this morning it has 10.3% capacity.

[00:19:28]Choke Canyon is currently at 7.4% capacity. We didn't see much change uh from the range last weekend on Choke Canyon.

[00:19:39]So combined the two western reservoirs are at 8.2%.

[00:19:43]Which is an improvement over last week.

[00:19:46]The biggest story though is Lake Tana.

[00:19:48]Uh Lake Texana as of this morning is is at 79% capacity. So that's tremendous. A few weeks ago it was below 50. It reached about 49%.

[00:20:02]That 79% is a reading uh from the uh Lvaka Navad River Authority that manages Lake Texana.

[00:20:11]And then also improving is our water uh use from the lower Colorado lower Colorado River. Similarly, a few weeks ago, uh the river water amount was was lessening.

[00:20:25]Uh however with these rains uh the river is in great shape and we're able to uh get our water from there as well.

[00:20:34]Currently we get about 30 million gallons a day uh from the the lower Colorado River and about 42 million gallons a day from Lake Tana.

[00:20:45]Okay. So let's talk a little bit about what will happen Tuesday at city council.

[00:20:51]And so, as you may know, we had two city council workshops uh to discuss policy uh uh on a level one water emergency. Uh one was on March 31st and then the second was on April 21st.

[00:21:06]We were to take a vote or the council was going to vote on April 28th. Uh but we took the last two weeks to review and update uh the policy that council will consider.

[00:21:20]And so on Tuesday, May 12th, uh city council will consider a host of changes uh to what we initially presented.

[00:21:31]Those changes include uh baseline methodologies, their curtailment percentage will stay the same and a few other changes that I'll I'll review with you. Now, [snorts] one of our first things I want to highlight is that we always had a residential first focus, but the changes that we'll go over with city council on Tuesday are even more residential focused.

[00:22:01]And as an example, we are going to recommend moving the baseline up for residential customers from what was 7,000 to 8,000 gallons per month.

[00:22:15]When you apply that 25% cartelment, the allocation for residential customers will move from 56.50 to 6,000 5250, sorry. Okay. to 6,000.

[00:22:32]We know that most of our customers use less than 6,000. Uh but this will help those that use more uh to be within that allocation amount.

[00:22:42]Search charges is the next thing that we'll talk about.

[00:22:47]We did have search charges in the drought contingency plan and there'll be some changes recommended there. Um [snorts] sir charges let's see for residential customers will be applied based on the allocation allocation and they'll remain the same for the commercial accounts. We are looking though at adding search charges to large volume users and that's new. We still have some work to do.

[00:23:17]>> Discussions, >> right? Uh discussions with our partners and so um [clears throat] search charges will be discussed more on Tuesday, but the goal is to use sir charges in lie of uh fines that could be issued especially to residential customers.

[00:23:36]So, one of the key things for residential customers is that we're not going to find residential customers any longer if they go over their allocation amount. Prior that was a that was talked about was finding residential customers if they go over their allocation. Uh but we're no longer recommending that.

[00:23:56]The same thing with turnoffs. We're not going to turn water off if people go over their allocation.

[00:24:02]>> [clears throat] >> Fines will still exist though if they're if a residential customer or any customer is violating really the level three uh drought contingency uh or drought uh management plan rules uh such as irrigating your landscape.

[00:24:22]Okay.

[00:24:24]Another change that we'll talk to the community and the council about on Tuesday is car washing and boat washing.

[00:24:32]Uh so the current drought contingency plan um prohibits car washing in a level one water emergency. We are going to recommend that car washing would be prohibited at home with a with a 5gallon bucket or a bucket >> would be allowed not prohibited sorry would be allowed at home with a bucket.

[00:24:52]Additionally car washes would be able to operate >> a commercial car wash would be able to operate. uh they would be treated like any other commercial account and let's see um okay so I think those are the the main key things right Nick uh so for residential customers we increase the baseline which increases the allocation no fines for going over the allocation no turnoff notices or even issues if they go over the allocation um sir charges would be more of a tool and they would be applied based on the allocation and would double if you go over the baseline, right?

[00:25:41]And then we're going to work with industry to see if we can get consensus on charging sir charges even if you have the drought exemption fee uh that you pay the curt the drought exemption search charge fee that sir charges would go into effect for large volume users regardless if they bought that insurance or not.

[00:26:01]Okay let's talk a little bit about swimming pools. Um uh we had initially talked about modifying the hours of our swimming pools in the summer season for this summer. Uh but upon further review of operational changes that we can make to save water at pools to include making sure every one of our municipal pools has a cover. Uh we're no longer going to modify the hours uh compared to last year's schedule.

[00:26:33]So, our pools, our four swimming pools that are seasonal and our two outdoor aquatic facilities will have the same hours as we had last year. And then our five splash pads uh will also have the same hours as last year.

[00:26:52]Okay. So, that will be announced uh today uh via press release as well. And uh we'll talk to council about that on Tuesday as well.

[00:27:01]Let's talk a little bit about how customers can determine how much water uh they're using. And so we know everybody has a meter at their house.

[00:27:09]It's in their yard, front yard generally. Um, but we've developed a residential water usage lookup uh portfolio or not portfolio but website uh that our IT department has done and uh we're going to out we're going to roll that out next week after council approves some of these policies like baselines and and cartailment amounts.

[00:27:34]And so [sighs] the residential water lookup will be a web-based application and a customer it will be real easy to use and access. Uh the customer will put in their customer number and their address, their customer account number and their address and then it will show them their water used to date whenever that date is. It'll also show them historical usage and average water used per day for the prior billing cycle.

[00:28:04]So, that's coming out next week. Real quick about some of the groundwater projects. [snorts] Just a quick update on those. And so, the Evangeline uh projects, let me just take a quick sip of this water.

[00:28:21]The Evangeline uh groundwater project.

[00:28:24]We know that the the issue there is the permits. And so we're still awaiting the decision from administrative law judge Alicia York. And today is the eighth day and we expect she said that her decision would be out by the 10th business day.

[00:28:42]So that would make it Tuesday of next week. There could be some news today.

[00:28:47]The new Asus groundwater program continues. Uh we currently have 15 wells in total, eight in the east and seven in the west producing about 13 million gallons a day.

[00:29:02]Effluent reuse. The big change there is that on Tuesday or the big the new news there is on Tuesday, city council will will consider a construction contract uh for the pipeline conveyance system from Oso to Greenwood.

[00:29:20]And then seawater desalination. Uh the news there is yesterday there was a another farfield meeting and that's coming along well. There's two more meetings. Uh one next one on the 21st and then a final on May 28th.

[00:29:37][clears throat] Okay. So, in closing for next week, we know on Tuesday, uh, city council will consider those policy items and and then we'll be here again next week for a full update. So, that concludes the briefing for this morning.

[00:29:53]We're going to have a translation in Spanish and then I'll come back up for questions.

[00:30:10]Corposto.

[00:30:55]Fore!

[00:30:59]Foreign! Foreign!

[00:31:09]for the internet.

[00:31:55]evangel.

[00:32:20]Thank you, Gabby. Now, uh, Mia is going to be traveling around with the microphone for some questions.

[00:32:28]>> Good morning. So, I want to talk about the residential baseline. Last week, when Chris 6 asked why the city couldn't just increase the residential baseline of 7,000 gallons a month, Mr. Winklman said, "It doesn't make sense to artificially raise a number. We know where we need to hit. We know where the averages are for the system to remain stable in the event we get to a level one water emergency.

[00:32:53]Given that response, why does the proposed ordinance now recommend the baseline be set at 8,000 gallons a month? What specific data analysis or expert recommendation caused you to reverse this position? Who made the decision?

[00:33:07]>> Right. Yeah. Thank you, Rachel. So, that's Rachel Clow from Chris 6 asking about the baseline. So, we have we have said it several times that the average customer today is using around 4,500 uh gallons of water a month. So, if we increase it, it doesn't really change um their ability to use more water because they're pretty much using what they'll be able to use under this um stage three water restrictions. However, about 30% of all of our customers use more uh than that amount than the 5250. 5250 would be was the original original allocation.

[00:33:45]30% of the customers residential customers use more than that. So, this would give those customers more flexibility uh in their water use uh by raising the baseline from the the 5250 to the 6,000 per month. 6,000 is also it's a it's a round number. It's a thousands number.

[00:34:08]The monthly bills are done in thousands of gallons. So it's and it's it's typically when we talk about the residential customer uh the average when it comes to billing is about 6,000. And so it just aligns better uh with information that has been out there, right? Yeah.

[00:34:28]So, I have a follow-up question to that because the city has previously told me that it can't just arbitrarily increase residential allocation because other customers such as wholesale or large volume water users may say if you're arbitrarily increasing residential, I want I want mine increased as well.

[00:34:47]>> Yeah.

[00:34:47]>> So, is the city concerned that that could happen?

[00:34:51]>> Right. All right. So, Rachel's question, um, I think you all heard it, but do we do we cause unintended consequences if we raise the residential baseline? We don't think we do. Uh, we'll have conversations with our wholesalers. Uh, the amount of water based on the methodology that we would use for them, which is a three-year average essentially, um, still gives them more water than what they're using today.

[00:35:17]whereas in our residential customers on average we would be we would be giving them about the same or less in some cases uh water. So we'll work through those uh situations that could uh that could come out. But I wouldn't say it's an artificial raising. It's just a raising uh to get an allocation that's more uh more round. It's around it's a thousandth number, 6,000.

[00:35:43]And it's one that we use or talk about a lot when it comes to uh budgeting and and rate setting. Uh and it'll give more flexibility uh to those customers that use more than 5250.

[00:36:04]>> Peter, good morning.

[00:36:04]>> Good morning, Mr. Merritt. Sean may Corpus Christie citizen and the uh tools and medium may change but the job doesn't and I got just three questions for you.

[00:36:14]>> Okay.

[00:36:16]>> Private DSL proposals are now openly discussing uh mineral recovery and monetization of brine as part of the project economics. Did the city ever conduct a formal analysis of brine re resource recovery? And if not, does the emergence of these proposals suggest the city's delaw planning may have been too narrowly focused on disposal rather than recovery?

[00:36:41]>> Right. Mr. Merritt's asking about uh this past Tuesday, city council uh heard a general overview of another diesel proposal by a company called Axe H2O, and part of their business proposal um is to mine, I guess, minerals or components out of the out of the brine discharge.

[00:37:00]We uh we we don't we're not too familiar with that technology and we're not too familiar with that business proposal.

[00:37:07]It's one of the things we'll be uh wanting more information from this company on. Um we we have looked at alternative uses for the brine that could come out of our inner harbor desalination facility. Uh in fact when we interviewed the the three firms about two years ago uh we asked them to give us alternative options that the city could consider rather than just discharging the brine back into the bay system. Uh there was some initial uh feedback from the then three consultants. Uh however, the technologies are still very new and the issue with them is that it's very expensive uh to try to recover whether it's salt or some other mineral um out of the water that goes back into the bay system.

[00:37:52]So I would say that um the technology that Axe H2O talked about uh needs a little more vetting or a little more uh presentation um so that it makes sense uh to us both from a uh the purpose of it and the especially the cost of it.

[00:38:10]And so the the direct answer to your question is yes. Uh we looked at alternate uses uh for the brine discharge when we look at the inner harbor project and should council approve that project I think in the future uh they'll there'll be continued analysis on options rather than just discharging it into the the bay system.

[00:38:32]>> Very good. Question two. Under the new 6,000galon cap, [clears throat] residents applying for variance are required to still explain if they have uh medical needs and health and safety impacts in detail. Exactly what level of personal or medical information is expected in that? Who specifically will review those submissions? What medical qualifications will they hold? And what written policy governs how that information is to be stored, protected, and who can access it.

[00:39:04]>> Right. Yeah. Thank you. So, Mr. Merritt has several questions on the exemption process for residential customers.

[00:39:11]Residential, we may get exemptions as well from commercial accounts. Uh, so the I appreciate you asking that question because I want to reiterate again that that a level one water emergency is a is serious. It's a serious situation if we get into one.

[00:39:26]But how we treat residential customers um has to be um delicately balanced and with a customer first for residents focus. And we had that approach when we first talked to city council in those two workshops that we had. But we want to we'll be reiterating it on Tuesday and as we go out into the communities for our seven uh eight eight community workshops uh which is that our focus is our residents right now when it comes to a level one water emergency. We already showed that to generate 16 million in in demand reduction, we're really going to have to be talking to the large volume users, the industrial customers. That's where the that's where the the water savings is going to come from. It's not going to come from residential customers. They've already done their part for the past two years. So, a simple message for our residential customers is whatever you're doing today, keep doing if we get into a level one water emergency.

[00:40:25]Now, we will have um we do have to have some type of metrics to follow so we can see how demand reduction is is occurring and and can we push out [clears throat] uh demand so that supply always meets demand. Uh so that's where you could have a larger family or somebody that has medical issues uh that might use more than 6,000 gallons a month. And so we'll have a very simple um request for variance process that will be reviewed and and managed by Corpus Christie water teammates. It'll be confidential.

[00:41:01]It'll be very um user assisted. So we're not going to expect somebody to necessarily fill out a form and then just send it in and wait for days. uh we hope to have uh persons on the other end of either the computer or the phone helping them through the process. It's just a one-page uh form. It'll be simple. We'll guide the the the residential customer and it's more so just uh just to help uh manage the process and less about punishing anybody, right? And so we do have to have some metrics so we can see how much water do we need to use every day. And so if somebody needs a variance over the 6,000, we'll work with them and we'll help them through that. Uh we know that fam bigger families, uh families of, you know, maybe more than two children and two parents, you could have you could have uh uh grandparents living in the home. You could have an ex a bigger extended family. And so as I mentioned, right now 30% of our residential customers use more than the old allocation of 5250.

[00:42:01]Um so there'll be some variances that come in. uh we're not expecting residential customers that have a legitimate use for water today to fit into that 6,000 uh allocation and so we'll just walk them we'll help walk them through that process for the variance right Nick anything else on that >> we don't want any medical records >> okay no medical records says Nick yeah there'll be very little documentation frankly >> right so a case doesn't have to be laboriously paid when people call for variance. Uh we have all the data we really need which is how much water have you historically used at that residential home and if it's been a higher number uh we just need the explanation as to what might be the reasoning more just for data tracking and then the and then it'll be uh reviewed and most likely approved because it fits within our our concept here of the residential customer has got to be first if we go into a level one water emergency. We know there has to be uh equity and by state law, we're required by state law uh to make sure there's a same percentage reduction.

[00:43:12]Uh but um we know the residential customers have already done their part.

[00:43:18]>> Thank you. Thank you, Nick. Last question. Yesterday, multiple scientists on the farfield committee stated that the baseline model is still underestimating observed salenity data.

[00:43:31]Dissolved oxygen is not included in the scope. Independent peer review is not currently planned and key long-term environmental scenarios still have not been modeled. Given that, why is the city still keeping the same June decision timeline for a project expected to impact Corpus Christie Bay for the next 20 to 30 years?

[00:43:52]Yeah. So when we um Thank you, mayor.

[00:43:55]Mr. Mayor, the last question deals with our farfale model and the scope of work.

[00:43:59]Uh the scope of work that the community has asked for and that the city council asked for and that we've we've thought was real important as well has not changed. Just the same. And the issue for years has been will a del facility in the inner harbor change salinity levels in the bay? Will it increase salt content in the bay? That has been the number one and the only request by the city council, by the community.

[00:44:24]There was there was limited to even no conversation on the concept of dissolved oxygen um and that type of thing. And so or peer review, although we there's nothing wrong with peer review. They uh the meeting yesterday as an example uh can be watched right now by anybody any peer and can be reviewed and and the feedback can be brought back to the next meeting. And that's true for the entire process here. So the uh the modeler felt that they could based on the scope of work and the request for proposal uh deliver uh the the work that we asked them to deliver on behalf of the city council and that is a farfield model that looks at the entire bay. We actually added two more bay components to the quote unquote bay.

[00:45:08]So we have the ship channel the Corpus Christie Bay and Newasis Bay. So we expanded the scope of of analysis and the question that has that was asked to be answered will be answered and that is will the del facility in the inner harbor uh impact salinity levels or temperature levels uh in the bay and then from that the modeler said that salinity and temperature are real good indications of of dissolved oxygen issues or hypoxic potential areas and so even that question can be answered with his study or with's study um even know it wasn't part of their original scope of work. So the the timeline is something folks have talked about in the committee meeting yesterday and saying that we don't have enough time. We want to review it with our peers. Uh the modeler has told us when they agreed to do the work that that there was plenty of time. In fact, we extended the contract by 30 days to give me more time and uh and that [clears throat] they can answer the questions that we that we put a request for proposal out for a consultant to answer and the questions that the council and the community has had will be answered. I don't know what happened, Mr. Mayor.

[00:46:16]>> So, now I've got a couple of questions that were sent in from Colleen with the Texas Tribune. Her question is, "Since Lake Texan's capacity has increased, is the city's project projection of when a level one water emergency to come online still expected by September?"

[00:46:32]>> Right. Yeah. And who was that again?

[00:46:33]That was >> Colleen with the Texas Tribune.

[00:46:35]>> Okay, great. So, Colleen from the Texas Tribune uh recognizes that the Choke Canyon just a few weeks ago was at was was uh based in the Texas Water Development Board website was 49% had fallen below 50%.

[00:46:48]Yeah, Texan, sorry, Texana, not choking.

[00:46:51]Lake Texan uh was 49 at 49% based on the Texas Water Development Board website.

[00:46:57]Today, as I mentioned, it's at 79%. So, that's uh 20 percentage points higher.

[00:47:03]It's and that's that's in water volume.

[00:47:07]Also, the lower Colorado River is flowing. There was even issues of potential u it's not curta I guess it would be considered curtailment there as well. Um and our western reservoirs were below 7%. So that has changed where uh Texana is now at 79% and our combined levels are at 8% in the west. So all that to say the question now is the the dashboard that we have the one that showed a level one water emergency being triggered in September of 2026. Does that change? The answer is it most likely will change. And what we are going to do is wait for about a 30-day period uh between the last run and the new run. Uh based on our model's availability, we'll be able to run uh not next week, but the following week, an updated model, and then we'll show that to council the the last council meeting in in May >> or earlier >> or earlier.

[00:48:06]>> Maybe the 19th.

[00:48:08]>> What were the dates? maybe the 19th or the 26th.

[00:48:11]>> Okay. So, maybe uh maybe May 19th, if not May 26, uh we'll we'll uh release the new model. Uh but we're pretty confident that what was a September level one water emergency declaration.

[00:48:26]We'll now [clears throat] move to uh a month or two in the future based on these uh two updates in our water supply.

[00:48:32]>> Great. So, she's got two more questions.

[00:48:35]One of them is what would curtailment look like for wholesale water customers of the city.

[00:48:40]>> Right. Curtailment for wholesale customers. So we presented to city council in the in the last two workshops and we'll present this Tuesday. Uh wholesalers there's about uh is it five Nick or six wholesalers? Uh that includes a big one that everybody knows.

[00:48:57]South Texas uh well uh San Patricio Municipal Water District is one of the is the largest one. Uh the wholesale customers include uh South Texas Water Authority, Alice, Matthysse, Beville.

[00:49:09]So uh the pres the the recommendation that we gave to city council deviates from what's in the drought management plan today. So the current policy that had been prior approved by city council uh said do a do a five-year averaging for wholesalers and that would be their baseline and then cartelment would be 25% of that amount. uh based on data review uh and things like a a big new uh user coming on board just three years ago. They weren't here the first two years of the 5-year continuum. If we use that methodology, uh they would get less water, much less than what they use today. So, we felt that wasn't a good methodology. So, we recommended to city council that we use a three-year average, taking out 12 months of that three-year average. uh that would give them when you take the 25% uh curtailment percentage that would actually give them uh about 2 million a day more in water uh than if we use uh if we 2 million more a day than what they use today and I think it was it was quite a few million more than if we use that old methodology that's in the drought management plan.

[00:50:21]>> Okay. And her last [clears throat] question is, I believe I heard the city manager say during the city council meeting this week that the city uses around 70 million gallons a day. Is that correct? And what is the average amount of water the city needs a day?

[00:50:36]>> Uh, she said 70 million.

[00:50:38]>> Yes. She's asking if this is the [clears throat] correct number she heard.

[00:50:41]>> No, I'm not sure what that comes from.

[00:50:43]I'm not sure if Colleen's talking about the city government, what we use in our park systems at city hall and so on.

[00:50:49]this she's a >> she doesn't clarify she just asked if the city uses around 70 >> I don't know where the 70 comes from but we [clears throat] the city is a is a water customer as well uh so city facilities like city hall our park system our hillyard center uh water is used in our water uh production processes as well as in our wastewater production processes and so what we do use a day is about a million gallons of water a day and the majority of that uh is used in our wastewater treatment process as well as in our water production process. It actually takes water to make uh water at our own Stevens water treatment plant. And so we like any other customer will face if we go into a level one water emergency will face a 25% curtailment. And we're working right now on what we would do uh to reduce water consumption. Uh we know that new uh that uh Newasis County is talking about uh these same issues because they similarly are are a municipal user and I do want to thank Judge Scott for taking the leadership role uh working with all her elected officials there to see how they can reduce uh water. Uh one thing they're looking at is a 4-day work week uh for their employees and in the county government. We're going to look at something along those lines. um as well as uh other water uh use reductions uh so that we too can be leaders in the community uh when it comes to reducing our water consumption.

[00:52:18]>> Questions from Colleen.

[00:52:20]>> Okay. Thank you, Colleen.

[00:52:23]>> I'd like to go back to citations. So, the proposed ordinance says customers who exceed the baselines or allocations are not subject to citation. The city has previously said citations are necessary to ensure compliance with large volume water users. We have heard the city say over and over again multiple large volume users are exempt from search charges. Now you're talking about well let's see if they're willing to pay the search charge. So it seems to me under this ordinance that your only real method of enforcement is through search charges and a lot of them don't pay that. What is the realistic what is the reality that a large volume water user is going to voluntarily pay that?

[00:53:10]>> Right. Yeah. [clears throat] So Rachel's talking about the let me just give some background context for listeners and other media outlet. So large volume users um the majority of them have paid a 31 cents per thousand gallon u um drought exemption drought searchcharge exemption fee.

[00:53:29]They've been paying it for years. it generates about 5 million 6 million 6 million annually.

[00:53:35]The the drought management plan that was in effect when that when that optional payment went into place and was approved by city council um had uh had various stages uh for drought management stage 1 2 3 and four. When we look at the new city council approved drought contingency plan, there is no stage four. And let me back up by saying that the drought searchcharge exemption fee said that it would it would it could exempt um these large volume users that that bought this insurance for levels 1 2 3 and four. Now we have a drought management [clears throat] plan that has no level four but rather a level one water emergency that really focuses on on curtailments and uh reduced water consumption. So in our in our conversations with city council uh and we agree some of them believe that uh there is no exemption even if you paid the fee at a level one water emergency.

[00:54:34]There is exemption to search charges based on the both the old plan and the new plan. There's there's a potential for exemption for for stages one two and three. Those still exist there. It would have been if there was a stage four but there is no stage four anymore. is a level one. So [clears throat] the the we're seeing that the that the uh the search charge is is probably going to be the best way to to keep people compliant with the allocation amount whether you're a residential customer or commercial. Uh the issue of finding people and turning off their water is just not appealing. It's not appealing to anybody and we and frankly we got a lot of negative backlash from it. And so we're taking a different approach which is that um let's look at search charges as a tool uh to help customers stay within their allocation amount. And so for the residential customer uh uh they they would have paid sir charges and under this new plan they still would pay sir charges. Same thing for commercial.

[00:55:36]Uh and so to be equitable across all customer classes, even if you bought the insurance, the the notion now is the insurance covered you for a stage one, two, and three water um water level or water um water reduction level, drought level. Uh because city council had the ability to issue search charges in stages 1, two, and three. Uh but now if a level one water emergency is in effect, we're saying everybody should pay sir charges to keep it fair, keep it equitable. [snorts] Plus, for a large volume user, that would probably be the best way to make sure they stay compliant because, as you mentioned, if you're paying the insurance and there's no real incentive to make sure you stay within your allocation as a large volume user, a $500 [clears throat] uh $500 fine is not going to do anything to a multi-billion dollar corporation. Uh, but sir charges we think would be a better tool to keep them within line.

[00:56:34]So, that's the concept behind a new recommendation that'll be talked first.

[00:56:38]We're going to talk to we already actually had begun talking to our our commercial our our large volume user partners I should say.

[00:56:46]We'll [clears throat] have more conversations between now and Tuesday as well.

[00:56:51]>> Thank you for providing the background, but I just want to essentially summarize what I believe you said.

[00:56:56]>> Okay. While the city has previously said that large volume water users who are part of the drought exemption program would be exempt under a water emergency. The city now believes they are not exempt from paying sir charges.

[00:57:14]>> I don't know if not is the right word.

[00:57:15]We're going to we're going to recommend that they are not exempt.

[00:57:21]>> Yeah. It's it's it's unclear from a if you look at the material and if you look at the if you look at the there's only two contracts that were signed by any of the uh any of the large volume users who are paying this 31 cents and there's a template one that was available for guidance.

[00:57:40]So the drought the old drought contingency plan and these prior contracts that were approved unfortunately were never updated and and industry had a chance about a year ago when we updated the drought contingency plan. The drought contingency plan, the old version and now the new one that has been in place for about a year. It eliminated what was a stage four exemption to paying search charges. And we have a new a new brand new uh brand new category called the level one water emergency.

[00:58:10]And so uh from a technical read, if you look at the documents and you read them all, it doesn't there's nowhere does it say that under a level one water emergency large volume users would be exempt from search charges if they were paying that drought exemption search charge fee. So it doesn't say it anywhere, right? But there's a nuance there's interpretation.

[00:58:32]That's why we're going to talk to we have begun but we'll talk to the large volume users to see what their what their thoughts are. We'll work with them. The issue is there's there's extreme angst in our residential classification and commercial that we're not treating people fair and we're not treating all customer classifications fair. And that's a a guiding principle from state law is equal treatment across uh classifications. And so the drought exemption search charges can be implemented in a what we call a stage one, stage two, stage three water restriction. We never did uh we we never did recommend doing that, but we could have. And so the drought exemption search charge fee helped those large industrial customers uh protect against any search charges in level one, two, three or stages one, two, three. But in the level one water emergency, nowhere does it say in the documents that they're exempt uh from paying sir charges.

[00:59:31]>> Okay, I I understand that. So I guess my next question would be when will we have absolute clarity?

[00:59:38]>> Will it be a council vote? When will [clears throat] that happen? Where are we at in this stage?

[00:59:42]>> Right? That's why we're glad to preview it today because it's going to happen this Tuesday coming up. Uh so city council [clears throat] uh will consider and will present on Tuesday. Uh and uh we expect there'll be some dialogue. We expect we'll have large volume users here as well uh to give feedback and and we're getting feedback as well from them. Uh so on Tuesday at city council, the plan is to go through all the amendments to the drought management plan so there's 100% clarity on how to move forward if we go into a level one water emergency. So on Tuesday, one of the items to be discussed is the one Rachel and I Rachel and I are talking about now, which is that uh that the clarity on how much drought searchcharge exemption is uh is is uh waved if you buy the drought searchcharge exemption insurance. On Tuesday, we're going to say that in a level one water emergency, uh it it is no longer um insurance that applies uh to that emergency when it comes to search charges. We'll tell council that. We'll have discussion from council.

[01:00:50]Ultimately, the nine council members will vote on that policy and uh it'll it'll come down to that vote >> on Tuesday.

[01:01:00]>> I guess I get to keep asking questions.

[01:01:03]Nobody else is here. Um, I do want to switch over to the proposal we heard related to AX H2O this week.

[01:01:10]>> Okay.

[01:01:11]>> So, you desri described that as lacking a site under contract, a funding timeline, customers, capex figures, and any apparent experience in water delivery. You put it on the agenda because council members requested it.

[01:01:25]How much staff time does vetting a proposal at that stage require? And given the urgency of the water crisis, is that a responsible use of your team's bandwidth?

[01:01:36]>> Yeah, the [clears throat] answer uh well, Rachel's question deals with an item that was on the city council agenda this past Tuesday, and it was um it was really a a beginning, not a beginning, it was really a a draft presentation from this Ax H2O group um who had um who had not only met with us but went around us and met with council members as well.

[01:01:57]And so under norm normal conditions, we would vet proposals. We get proposals constantly from uh persons that have ideas on how we can buy water from them.

[01:02:07]Um in this case, uh the Ax H2O folks uh went to several city council members and and wanted to come to city council. Axe H2O did uh to present their CA their business proposal. Um, under general and prior prior practices, we would have spent, if we thought it was a good proposal, uh, quite a bit of time to analyze it, to ask some questions. I don't know how many days or hours in total, Rachel, but it would have been a lot of time. Uh, based on Nick and I, Nick Wkelman, our COO of Corpus Christie Water. Uh, we just have a ton of questions on their on their proposal.

[01:02:43]Um, as as I said Tuesday and as I stand by that word, which is they have never done water before. uh they have no customers, they have no real estate under contract, they have no business model, they have no permits, uh they have a price for the water that we don't really think is um is realistic uh coming from a del facility.

[01:03:04]Uh so there would have been a lot of time that we would have spent to to have this this entity prove up their business concept before we brought it to city council. uh but because they uh had approached some council members, the council really just wanted to give them some uh an opportunity to present uh generally their business proposal here.

[01:03:24]So uh and we and I also wanted to get direction from city council from all nine members. Is this something you want us to look into? And so the council did vote um I think it was six 621 six affirmative votes that we should look into this business proposal. Uh but what it means now is that Axe H2O really has to develop the business proposal. We're not going to develop it for them and we're going to be probably using our time wisely uh so that they can really prove up before they come back to us uh their proposal to include things like where is the plant going to be? Uh how do you how do you plan to get permits from TCQ and the Army Corps of Engineers?

[01:04:05]Let's look at a detailed budget to see how do you really get to $6.50 50 cents a thousand. Most del facilities, ours is um ours is is is more than that. And Harbor Island, they stated is like 14 to 15,000 gallons, a similar offshore uh system. So, uh we won't be spending too much time to help them develop their proposal. they have to develop their proposal, come back to us and and really going forward now uh since we're past this step of presenting to council. It's really the onus is going to be on XH2O uh to uh prove up their business concept and we'll use some of our uh some of our consultants potentially um on vetting uh their business proposal when they bring it back.

[01:04:53]>> I think I have time for one more question, right? Um I want to follow up on a question I asked. I think it was four or three or four weeks ago related to the new ASUS River Authority and the water reservation fee. Initially, you said it's a non-refundable fee. However, allegations have been made that the city council was misled. You said you would go to legal and ask legal if those allegations are proven true. Could the city claw back that money? Have you uh have you gotten an answer from legal? We did get an answer and we provided that to council when this thing first uh was announced a couple of weeks ago. So uh the contract is clear that we that was presented to city council and that was approved ultimately on uh on when we uh recommended and entered into this contract for the 2.7 million reservation fee. And so the contract says that there is no refund. It's non-refundable. Uh Miles Rizley, our uh city attorney, has uh has opined with me that there is no way to uh to get the money back. Uh we'll continue to evaluate it though. Uh we know that today the NRA has a board meeting uh to uh discuss an executive session the the U review that's underway on the employees allegations against John Byum and the and the entity itself.

[01:06:14]and um and so we'll we'll wait we'll wait to see what the outcome of that f of that report is. Uh right now though based on our attorney's uh recommendation um or feedback there is no uh way to to to get the money back. Uh and it may not warrant that if the report comes out clear. So we'll have to see one what does the report say? If the council wants us to um to consider this more we can do that. Uh it'll take a legal review though.

[01:06:45]>> Yeah.

[01:06:47]>> Okay. Thank you. That does conclude our press conference, but uh we do want to let the community know about our community water information sessions.

[01:06:54]There will be eight different sessions throughout the community across all districts. The first one will begin this Monday, May 11th, from 6:00 to 7:00 out on the island. So for our viewer sake, it is up on the screen. There is more information that you can visit the website online so you can get more details on those information sessions.

[01:07:12]We'll have another water information session media briefing here this Friday um again at 10 a.m. on May 15th and a full recording of today's presentations available on YouTube. For any follow-up questions, they can be sent to communications department at corpus christristcttx.gov. Thank you.