Years of drought has major energy port of Corpus Christi, Texas, wrestling with water crisis

In parched southern Texas, a yearslong drought has depleted Corpus Christi's water reserves so gravely that the city is scrambling to prevent a shortage that could force painful cutbacks for residents and hobble the refineries and petrochemical plants in a major energy port.

Experts said the city didn't expect such a bad drought, and new sources of reliable water didn't arrive as expected. Those problems arose as the city increased its water sales to big industrial customers.

“We just have not kept up with water supply and water infrastructure like we should have. And it's decades in the making,” said Peter Zanoni, the city manager since 2019.

Corpus Christi, a city of about 317,000 people that also supplies water to nearby counties, is closely tied to its oil and gas industry. The region makes everyday essentials like fuel and steel and ships them to the world.

Zanoni said it is highly unlikely the city will run out of water, but without significant rainfall or new sources, residents may face forced cutbacks and industry may have to do with less. At a time when the Iran war is already raising gas prices, the shortage is hitting an area that produces 5% of the U.S. gasoline supply.

Droughts are common, but this one has dragged on for most of the past seven years. Key reservoirs are at their lowest point ever. The quickest fix is different weather.

“We are actively praying for a hurricane,” former city council member David Loeb said, half in jest. Loeb doesn't want anyone injured, but after wrestling with previous droughts in his time on the council, he feels the lack of rain acutely.

The drought isn't expected to lift by summer, leaving officials scrambling to tap more groundwater to avoid an emergency.

After the last drought in the early 2010s, the city approved a pipeline extension to bring in more water from the Colorado River and promoted conservation. In the years that followed, water use actually fell. The city, seeing opportunity, added a petrochemical plant and steel mill to its long list of industrial customers.

City officials had allowed for drought in their calculations — just not this kind of drought, Zanoni said. It has hit especially hard because reservoirs never fully recharged after the last one.

And it's come at a bad time.

After many years, the pipeline extension finally delivered its full capacity only last year. Meanwhile, discussion of building a desalination plant that would remove salt from seawater — a potentially drought-proof solution recommended in 2016 — bogged down over concerns about costs as high as $1.3 billion and environmental impact.

“If the then-city council had followed through on that, we would have had that plant up and running by now,” Zanoni said.

Corpus Christi has followed its long-established plan for reducing water use. Stage 1 seeks voluntary actions from citizens like taking shorter showers and limiting how often they can water. Currently, the city is in Stage 3, which means pauses on many outdoor water uses.

Many residents are angry that they can’t water their lawns, that their bills are set to rise sharply and that they may face fines, said Isabel Araiza, co-founder of a grassroots group active on water issues. Some don’t feel industry will be asked to share in the pain, she said.

The city's drought plan allows for charging residents and businesses extra if they use lots of water. But big industry, which Zanoni says consumes as much as 60% of the city's water, can opt to pay a permanent surcharge to avoid the possibility of having a much larger fee added in times of drought.

Araiza calls it a bad system. Once industry pays the surcharge, she said, they have no incentive to conserve water.

The city has defended the system, saying in a statement that industry does not “get a pass on water conservation” or forced curtailment. The statement said the business surcharges have raised $6 million a year.

It is wrong to suggest industry isn’t helping, said Bob Paulison, executive director of the Coastal Bend Industry Association. Companies have stopped landscaping, they recycle water for essential cooling needs and they are looking for alternative water sources, he said.

The city hasn't imposed extra costs on anyone yet.

But Zanoni said water rates may eventually double as the city invests roughly $1 billion on infrastructure — costs that some argue will disproportionately benefit industry and make life for residents more expensive.

The city is in a water emergency when it has 180 days before water supply can't keep up with demand. Officials have run through different scenarios for getting new water and the drought easing, and have said an emergency could come as early as May, as late as October, or not at all.

The city has tapped into millions of gallons of new groundwater, and it hopes to get even more.

The biggest unknown is the Evangeline Groundwater Project, which involves a pipeline and about two dozen wells that could add enough water to head off an emergency. It still needs state approval but the city hopes water could be flowing as soon as November. New sources come with drawbacks – some have raised water quality concerns, and there are worries too much pumping could deplete groundwater.

If the city has to declare a water emergency, it would be able to more aggressively curtail water use – mandatory reductions that would apply evenly to all industry and residents. That is a sensitive decision and is likely to be a “knock-down drag-out bloodbath,” Loeb said.

Because residents on average have already reduced their water use, future mandatory cuts are likely to fall heavier on industry.

“It’ll be an unbelievable disaster,” said Don Roach, former assistant general manager of the San Patricio Municipal Water District that has lots of industrial customers in the area. “When you cut the cooling water off to most of these industries, they just have to shut down. There’s no other way around it.”

Paulison said companies that produce fuel, polymers, iron and steel “have the least amount of flexibility in just cutting water usage.” He added, however, that companies remain optimistic they can reduce usage, adapt and continue operations.

Zanoni said the city's plans should buy time to avert the worst.

“We are hoping we don’t get there, but we don’t work on hope,” he said.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

A Citgo oil refinery operates next to the Hillcrest neighborhood Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A fishing boat works just offshore in the Corpus Christi Bay on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A ship is docked as the sun sets Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, at the Port of Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A Port of Corpus Christi police officer guides a boat through the port Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Birds fly over the Port of Corpus Christi as the sun sets Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Gavino Rivera talks about the decline of the Hillcrest neighborhood Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, as he gathers scrap metal near a Citgo oil refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade to stop ships from entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after historic U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement or next diplomatic steps in sight.

In his first public comments after the 21-hour talks, Trump sought to exert strategic control over the waterway that was responsible for the shipping of 20% of global oil supplies before the war, hoping to eliminate Iran’s key source of leverage.

The prospect of a U.S. blockade could further rattle global energy markets and prices for oil, natural gas and related products. It was not immediately clear how a blockade might be carried out, but Trump said the goal of the blockade was to ensure all ships could transit: “It’s going to be all or none, and that’s the way it is.”

Trump said he has “instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas.” Other nations would be involved in the blockade, he said, but did not name them.

Trump stressed that Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were at the core of the failure to end the war, and the U.S. was ready to “finish up” Iran at the “appropriate moment."

Face-to-face talks ended earlier Sunday, the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Both delegations later left Islamabad.

Neither side indicated what will happen after the 14-day ceasefire expires on April 22. Pakistani mediators urged all parties to maintain it. Both sides said their positions were clear and blamed the other, underscoring how little the gap had narrowed.

“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vice President JD Vance, leading the U.S. side, said afterward.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran in talks, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.” Iranian officials earlier said talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called U.S. overreach.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue between Iran and the U.S. in the coming days.

Iran said it was open to continuing the dialogue, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The European Union urged further diplomatic efforts. The foreign minister of Oman, on the southern coast of the Strait of Hormuz, called for both parties to “make painful concessions." And the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “emphasized his readiness” to help bring about a diplomatic settlement in a call with Iran's president.

Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, the fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,020 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries. Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring.

Tensions have long centered on Iran's nuclear program. Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insisted on its right to a civilian nuclear program. It has offered “affirmative commitments” in the past in writing, including in the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which took well over a year of negotiations. Experts say its stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.

An Iranian diplomatic official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of closed-door talks, denied that negotiations had failed over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

“Iran is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, but it has the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” the official said.

In Iran, there was fresh exhaustion and anger after months of unrest that had begun with nationwide protests against economic issues and then political ones, and then weeks of sheltering from U.S. and Israeli bombardment.

“We have never sought war. But if they try to win what they failed to win on the battlefield through talks, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” 60-year-old Mohammad Bagher Karami said in Tehran.

During the talks, the U.S. military said two destroyers transited the critical strait ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran’s state media said the country’s joint military command denied that.

Before talks began, the ceasefire was already threatened by other deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran’s 10-point proposal had called for a guaranteed end to the war and sought control over the Strait of Hormuz. It wanted the end of fighting against Iran’s “regional allies,” explicitly calling for a halt to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah.

Pakistani officials earlier told The Associated Press that the U.S. 15-point proposal included a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program. Speaking on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to discuss details, they said it also covered reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The impasse raises new questions about Lebanon. Israel has said the agreement did not apply there, but Iran and Pakistan claimed otherwise. Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite their lack of official relations.

The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

Though Israel’s strikes over Beirut have calmed, its attacks on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside the ground invasion it renewed after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in the war's opening days.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported six people were killed Sunday in an Israeli strike in Maaroub village near the coastal city of Tyre.

Israel wants Lebanon's government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, but the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades.

Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Boak from Miami and Magdy from Cairo. E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis contributed.

Women walk past a banner depicting the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strikes on Feb. 28, in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Vice President JD Vance walking on the tarmac for a planned refueling stop in Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Sunday, April 12, 2026, after attending talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Vice President JD Vance, left, talks to Pakistan's Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, right, and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, center, before boarding Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

In this photo released by the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, center right, and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, center left, are greeted by Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, right, and Army Chief Field Marshal Gen. Asim Munir, left, upon their arrival at Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

In this photo released by the Pakistan Prime Minister Office, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, left, meets with hand with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, April 11, 2026 (Pakistan Prime Minister Office via AP)

Vice President JD Vance, second left, shakes hands with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, as Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, left, Pakistan's Chief of Defence Forces Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, third left, and Charge d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad Natalie A. Baker, right, look on, as he prepares to board Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

Vice President JD Vance arrives for news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

Vice President JD Vance, right, speaks during a news conference after meeting with representatives from Pakistan and Iran as Jared Kushner, left, and Steve Witkoff, Special Envoy for Peace Missions listen, on Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)