Buck Turgidson said:

---

There is no long term solution other than Desal Plant(s). Everybody knows this. BUILD THE ******* PLANT. If the worry about salinity is legit, seems like you can fix that by extending an outflow pipe out into the actual ocean. Every day these inept tards delay construction just makes the pain worse. Bunch of ****ing ostriches.

---

Agree this is an obvious solution and we should bite the bullet. Just spend the money now while we have it in Texas, we sure as hell waste enough on crap that we don't need.

I do wonder though how much strain it would take off the system if a significant number of homes used rain catchment though. They have pushed rain barrels which is good but that is just a bit of water to help with gardening, I can't imagine they have much real impact compared to a 25,000 gallon tank, if you have space for a tank it seems an obvious solution to me, Corpus gets 30 inches of rain per year but virtually all of it is just draining off into the Gulf.

I'd also be a fan of making every datacenter set up rain catchment if possible. If you have a giant building like that might as well put solar panels and rain catchment on it for the optics and politics if nothing else.

I'm a fan of all of the above solutions and seeing what fits. I just think this is the most significant infrastructure problem for Texas by a long shot and I don't hear politicians talking about it nearly enough outside of trying to figure out who to blame. Just solve the damn problem.

Well, I'll say it again on the "why"....this is just typical human behavior. We don't address real problems until it's already almost too late to address it. It's arguably already too late for Corpus. They are totally at the whim of getting a crap ton of rain at this point. If that doesn't happen, they are f'ed.

Also, if politicians had been focusing on real environmental issues like lack of water instead of wealth redistribution climate scams, we could have long since started addressing this. If you don't have water, then you have nothing. It's the ultimate "green" issue and it's been ignored.

Go read up on the CO River disaster. The 7 states that depend on that are looking at catastrophe as well. We are going to have major problems in this country in relatively short order if politicians don't start taking water access seriously.

And I seriously doubt that issue exists. The minerals in the brine can be harvested: potassium, magnesium, sodium, etc, and utilized. The day of zero discharge desalination is upon us.

That was kind of my thought as well. Cargill has 16,000 acres of salt flats near San Francisco (if you fly into SFO, it's a pretty impressive sight from the air). One would think you could do the same thing with the brine. Maybe the near-shore water is too dirty for that?

Here is a good summary / catch up article for anyone who is not familiar with this story yet:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/why-corpus-christi-faces-a-looming-water-shortage-and-what-might-help/ar-AA23OZ6T

There was an article in the WSJ two weeks ago about the new one in San Diego, the same one CC turned down and it is zero discharge.

We need good government pushing desalination plants to fix this.

Raining pretty decently down here now.

Cheers to you, Ag with kids, wherever you are.

The cost of NOT building the plant(s) is to halt economic growth in Corpus when it could be booming. Build the plant, price the water accordingly and people/businesses will adjust consumption to reflect need more than casual, wasteful want. I am a partner in an apartment complex in Corpus. We are spending over $100k to change the landscaping to consume less water. The city assured us that the plant was coming and there would be plenty of water to meet the ongoing needs of the city years ago when we were considering buying the raw land. I'm sure businesses and property owners all over the city are dealing with similar issues while the city sits paralyzed wishing they had options that do not exist.

YouBet said:

---

Well, I'll say it again on the "why"....this is just typical human behavior. We don't address real problems until it's already almost too late to address it. It's arguably already too late for Corpus. They are totally at the whim of getting a crap ton of rain at this point. If that doesn't happen, they are f'ed.

Also, if politicians had been focusing on real environmental issues like lack of water instead of wealth redistribution climate scams, we could have long since started addressing this. If you don't have water, then you have nothing. It's the ultimate "green" issue and it's been ignored.

Go read up on the CO River disaster. The 7 states that depend on that are looking at catastrophe as well. We are going to have major problems in this country in relatively short order if politicians don't start taking water access seriously.

---

Don't disagree, my point is that I am hopeful they will address it now before it gets really bad. Corpus may get super lucky with El Nino and buy some time but it's coming. Honestly the problems in West Texas that relies on the Ogalala are worse because there is no chance of that being refilled and it is a true time bomb. If Texas wants to keep growing we have to address it just as California did decades ago in Los Angeles (and they are now letting that planning and infrastructure go to crap because they are insane). I'm just hoping people wake up and prioritize this, it's a difficult but solvable problem.

If they don't this is definitely something that gets people voted out of office.

aggie93 said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Well, I'll say it again on the "why"....this is just typical human behavior. We don't address real problems until it's already almost too late to address it. It's arguably already too late for Corpus. They are totally at the whim of getting a crap ton of rain at this point. If that doesn't happen, they are f'ed.

Also, if politicians had been focusing on real environmental issues like lack of water instead of wealth redistribution climate scams, we could have long since started addressing this. If you don't have water, then you have nothing. It's the ultimate "green" issue and it's been ignored.

Go read up on the CO River disaster. The 7 states that depend on that are looking at catastrophe as well. We are going to have major problems in this country in relatively short order if politicians don't start taking water access seriously.

---

Don't disagree, my point is that I am hopeful they will address it now before it gets really bad. Corpus may get super lucky with El Nino and buy some time but it's coming. Honestly the problems in West Texas that relies on the Ogalala are worse because there is no chance of that being refilled and it is a true time bomb. If Texas wants to keep growing we have to address it just as California did decades ago in Los Angeles (and they are now letting that planning and infrastructure go to crap because they are insane). I'm just hoping people wake up and prioritize this, it's a difficult but solvable problem.

If they don't this is definitely something that gets people voted out of office.

---

My cursory reading on El Niño is that it won't help corpus much, but I'm no way an expert on that.

aggie93 said:

---

Looks like recent rain has bumped the really severe water restrictions until December and hopefully the rain this weekend will help even more as the Nueces River Basin appears to be getting decent rain. That said I really hope they make water issues right at the top of governmental priorities for Texas because this problem isn't going away and Corpus is just one of many areas dealing with this. You can't have the population explosion we have had along with the O&G and other industrial uses we have for water continue to expand and just hope we get rain.

Some thoughts that come to mind as solutions:

Increased funding both in expanding desalination and researching more efficient methods of doing it. Currently it's expensive, takes a ton of energy, and you have a big issue with what to do with the leftover salt/brackish water. Seems like we should invest significantly in innovation and research to work on those problems.

Incentives for increased use of rainwater catchment systems. If you have a large structure or house in a water restricted area this is the way to go. Great quality water and efficient. Just have to store it and filter it. Much better than wells. Basically every structure from Brady Westward should be doing this.

Diverting water from East Texas. Currently this is impractical but is there a way to divert some of the excess water from East Texas to Central Texas and Corpus? Houston is basically a flood zone but just to the West it's in constant threat of drought because of how the water flows. Perhaps a pipeline. Certainly worth investing money to see if this could be a solution to transport that excess water and not have it all just flow to the Gulf.

Currently it seems like our solution is mainly to push conservation and pretend the problem will just go away, that's going to end in disaster for us when we get really unlucky with Mother Nature. West Texas is in bigger trouble because so much of their water comes from an aquifer that isn't recharging.

---

The reprieve, if that's even the right word, is that Texana has gone up this spring. It's currently Corpus' primary source of water now.

The recent rain isn't going to do much for the lone reservoir on the Nueces River Basin.

Texana is currently 3/4 of CRP's water right now which I was not aware of until I posted that article above.

El Niño is typically hotter dryer summers, and cooler wetter winters on the Gulf Coast and plains. With less tropical activity. Winters are cool. But rarely a freeze for us.

La Niña is typically wetter summers and fall (which we didn't have) with a warm dry winter (which we did have). La Niña will usually have a one or two really cold spells in the winter with a few hard freezes between the warm spells.

Who really knows though???

SanAntoneAg said:

---

aggie93 said:

---

Looks like recent rain has bumped the really severe water restrictions until December and hopefully the rain this weekend will help even more as the Nueces River Basin appears to be getting decent rain. That said I really hope they make water issues right at the top of governmental priorities for Texas because this problem isn't going away and Corpus is just one of many areas dealing with this. You can't have the population explosion we have had along with the O&G and other industrial uses we have for water continue to expand and just hope we get rain.

Some thoughts that come to mind as solutions:

Increased funding both in expanding desalination and researching more efficient methods of doing it. Currently it's expensive, takes a ton of energy, and you have a big issue with what to do with the leftover salt/brackish water. Seems like we should invest significantly in innovation and research to work on those problems.

Incentives for increased use of rainwater catchment systems. If you have a large structure or house in a water restricted area this is the way to go. Great quality water and efficient. Just have to store it and filter it. Much better than wells. Basically every structure from Brady Westward should be doing this.

Diverting water from East Texas. Currently this is impractical but is there a way to divert some of the excess water from East Texas to Central Texas and Corpus? Houston is basically a flood zone but just to the West it's in constant threat of drought because of how the water flows. Perhaps a pipeline. Certainly worth investing money to see if this could be a solution to transport that excess water and not have it all just flow to the Gulf.

Currently it seems like our solution is mainly to push conservation and pretend the problem will just go away, that's going to end in disaster for us when we get really unlucky with Mother Nature. West Texas is in bigger trouble because so much of their water comes from an aquifer that isn't recharging.

---

The reprieve, if that's even the right word, is that Texans has gone up this spring. It's currently Corpus' primary source of water now.

The recent rain isn't going to do much for the lone reservoir on the Nueces River Basin.

---

My point on the recent rain is it looks like we could have a wet Summer/Fall which would be huge. Maybe not though. Texana is at 82% which is great but we need more.

Either way it's clear this is about buying time and we need long term solutions because at some point the rain won't come when needed.

BadMoonRisin said:

---

Raining pretty decently down here now.

Cheers to you, Ag with kids, wherever you are.

---

Sitting in the house, avoiding the rain.

And having a drink.

We are here off Windward, just south of the Packery. Hoping the sun pokes its head out later today so we can check out the Sandbox. Until then.

BadMoonRisin said:

---

We are here off Windward, just south of the Packery. Hoping the sun pokes its head out later today so we can check out the Sandbox. Until then.

---

Sandbox is pretty cool.

So is the Anchor Bar at the Wyndham.

The Salty Dolphin is more of a local's place.

YouBet said:

---

aggie93 said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Well, I'll say it again on the "why"....this is just typical human behavior. We don't address real problems until it's already almost too late to address it. It's arguably already too late for Corpus. They are totally at the whim of getting a crap ton of rain at this point. If that doesn't happen, they are f'ed.

Also, if politicians had been focusing on real environmental issues like lack of water instead of wealth redistribution climate scams, we could have long since started addressing this. If you don't have water, then you have nothing. It's the ultimate "green" issue and it's been ignored.

Go read up on the CO River disaster. The 7 states that depend on that are looking at catastrophe as well. We are going to have major problems in this country in relatively short order if politicians don't start taking water access seriously.

---

Don't disagree, my point is that I am hopeful they will address it now before it gets really bad. Corpus may get super lucky with El Nino and buy some time but it's coming. Honestly the problems in West Texas that relies on the Ogalala are worse because there is no chance of that being refilled and it is a true time bomb. If Texas wants to keep growing we have to address it just as California did decades ago in Los Angeles (and they are now letting that planning and infrastructure go to crap because they are insane). I'm just hoping people wake up and prioritize this, it's a difficult but solvable problem.

If they don't this is definitely something that gets people voted out of office.

---

My cursory reading on El Niño is that it won't help corpus much, but I'm no way an expert on that.

---

No way to know until winter gets here. So many variables within each El Niño episode, deviation from normal in the 3.4 zone, or "strength" doesn't guarantee any particular latitudinal storm track pattern or precipitation amount over a period of months in any particular area

"Greater chance" of "above normal precipitation" in the southern latitudes of the US is about all you can predict for now

Cross your fingers and hope for the best

YouBet said:

---

Texana is currently 3/4 of CRP's water right now which I was not aware of until I posted that article above.

---

The road over the Texana dam is closed right now while they try to find and fix the leak in the dam.

HTownAg98 said:

---

Buck Turgidson said:

---

There is no long term solution other than Desal Plant(s). Everybody knows this. BUILD THE ******* PLANT. If the worry about salinity is legit, seems like you can fix that by extending an outflow pipe out into the actual ocean. Every day these inept tards delay construction just makes the pain worse. Bunch of ****ing ostriches.

---

The problem is cost. Evidently, it is crazy expensive to run a pipeline into the Gulf.

---

Well, it was apparently feasible to build a pipeline from Bay City to CC, so cost shouldn't be the deciding factor.

rab79 said:

---

HTownAg98 said:

---

Buck Turgidson said:

---

There is no long term solution other than Desal Plant(s). Everybody knows this. BUILD THE ******* PLANT. If the worry about salinity is legit, seems like you can fix that by extending an outflow pipe out into the actual ocean. Every day these inept tards delay construction just makes the pain worse. Bunch of ****ing ostriches.

---

The problem is cost. Evidently, it is crazy expensive to run a pipeline into the Gulf.

---

Well, it was apparently feasible to build a pipeline from Bay City to CC, so cost shouldn't be the deciding factor.

---

Yeah, and Israel has figured it out so we should be able to

Outflow pipes to the Mediterranean. Build the desal plants near industry that uses water to cool. Dilute the desal's biproduct with that water to mitigate or even prevent environmental damage

Works for them