One of the busiest refining and petrochemical clusters on the Gulf Coast is now facing the most severe water shortage in its history. The city of Corpus Christi, Texas, which supports both a major industrial base and more than half a million residents across its service region, is warning officials that it could enter a Level 1 water emergency as soon as late next year. That designation would mean the city estimates only 180 days remain before water demand outpaces available supply.
That scenario would likely force curtailments in water use for industrial customers, including some petrochemical and refining plants. According to Bob Paulison, executive director of the Coastal Bend Industry Association, some facilities may have to shut down units or entire plants depending on how much and how long the industry is asked to reduce water usage.
“Plants that have more flexibility and can accept some curtailment may shut down units and parts of the plant,” Paulison said. “It depends on which plants you are talking about and how long and how much of a curtailment there is.”
For a refining and petrochemical heavy region such as the Coastal Bend, a water emergency would represent a major turning point. The Gulf Coast alone holds more than 10 million barrels per day of crude refining capacity, and the Corpus Christi area accounts for more than 900,000 barrels per day of that total as of January 1.
Industry Dependence on Municipal Water
The city’s water utility supplies both residential and commercial customers, as well as large industrial users. In September, industrial users in the Corpus Christi area, primarily refineries and petrochemical plants, consumed over 1.1 billion gallons, which exceeded all residential and commercial usage combined.
Most industrial plants draw from the same sources as the city system, including reservoirs and treatment infrastructure. Susan Bell, vice president of oil commodity markets at Rystad Energy, explained that these plants use freshwater for steam generation, cooling, and feedstock processing such as hydrogen production and steam methane reforming. Seawater or brackish water cannot be used because it would corrode equipment and increase maintenance costs.
Bell said that once curtailments are imposed, reliable operations are difficult to maintain. “It is very difficult to operate these facilities reliably if you are under water curtailment. You really do have to scale back your throughput,” she said.
Paulison added that upgrading water systems is not a quick process. Industrial facilities typically add new technology only during scheduled maintenance shutdowns, not on an ongoing basis. With water scarcity worsening, companies and their suppliers are under pressure to find solutions quickly.
“Many of our member companies are seeing this in boardrooms across Texas,” said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association. “A solution is absolutely necessary to avoid the drastic things that occur when you do not have the water that is necessary to continue the jobs and operations at these facilities. The water conversation is literally a jobs conversation.”
Growing Strain and Political Stalemate
The water situation in Corpus Christi recalls earlier crises. During the 2011 drought, more than 95 percent of Texas faced the most severe drought category, and the city’s main reservoirs, Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon, dropped to about 44.5 percent of capacity by August 2012.
Since then, the region has seen rapid industrial expansion. A Texas A&M University study found nearly 60 billion dollars in private capital invested in petrochemical and industrial sites around the Port of Corpus Christi between 2012 and 2023. Over the same period, water usage by the manufacturing sector grew from 17.8 billion to 23.1 billion gallons annually across the Coastal Bend, according to the Texas Water Development Board.
Despite expanded investment, the system is now stretched thin. The two main storage facilities managed by the city’s water provider recently sat at about 11.7 percent of capacity. Environmental organizer Jake Hernandez of the Texas Campaign for the Environment said industrial growth has played a major role in creating the current crisis.
“These large industrial water users are driving this drought forward and making this sort of a manufactured incident,” Hernandez said.
Paulison disagreed, noting that even with higher demand the system should still have enough capacity. “Even with those increases in demand, we should be within range that our system is reliably producing enough water, but it is not,” he said. “We think based on public data that the lake system is underperforming.”
A large desalination project was supposed to provide relief. The plant was designed to produce up to 30 million gallons per day of freshwater, but in September the Corpus Christi City Council voted against continuing with the design phase because of cost increases that pushed the total to about 1.2 billion dollars.
The city is now considering alternatives, including purchasing water from a proposed desalination plant run by the Nueces River Authority and drilling additional groundwater wells. Under a revised drought plan approved earlier this year, industrial users will face a surcharge of 12 dollars per 1,000 gallons for any usage over 12 million gallons per month once a Level 1 emergency is declared. The city may also impose 5 percent cutbacks as needed.
Esteban Ramos, the city’s water resource manager, said price signals tend to work better than mandates. “There is no way to get 100 percent compliance,” he said. “People do not change their habits unless things cost more.”
Mayor Paulette Guajardo stated that the city is pursuing multiple near-term and long-term solutions. “We continue to explore and advance immediate and future water supply strategies, including new infrastructure, conservation measures, and partnerships, to strengthen our system and maintain resiliency through growth and drought cycles,” she said.
Still, local industry leaders remain uncertain. Based on current projections, a full-blown water emergency could arrive by November 2026, with the reservoirs potentially empty by April 2027.
Paulison said refiners and chemical producers had expected a desalination plant to be online by 2028, and were managing water use accordingly. “Now, we are unsure how to proceed,” he said. “We need a productive conversation that gets us moving toward a real solution for the region’s water supply.”
