April 2025
The San Patricio Municipal Water District is required by state regulations to update its Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) every five years. The District is also required by its water contracts with the City of Corpus Christi to have a drought contingency plan consistent with the city's plan.
After a public meeting to receive comments was held on April 8, 2025, the SPMWD board of directors voted to adopt a revised District plan. The Plan was last updated in 2019.
The plan calls for the General Manager to monitor city actions and water supply conditions weekly to determine when conditions warrant initiation of triggers set out in the plan. A key element of the plan is that the previous four stages for triggering conservation measures have been reduced to three stages. The triggers are tied to the combined amount of water in storage in the Choke Canyon Reservoir/Lake Corpus Christi (CCR/LCC) system based on the TCEQ 2001 Agreed Order.
DOWNLOAD - You can download the entire 2025 SPMWD Drought Contingency Plan [HERE].
STAGE 1 - MILD WATER SHORTAGE -
Stage 1 begins when the combined reservoir storage level declines below 40%. Customers shall be required to comply with the requirements and restriction on certain non-essential water uses. Water restrictions under Stage 1 limit any hose-end sprinkler or irrigation system lawn watering to once per week. It also requires customers to discontinue other non-essential uses. Sprinkler irrigation is always prohibited from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hand watering is allowed on any day but the hose must have an automatic shut off nozzle, a faucet filled bucket or watering can of (5) gallons or less. Stage 1 restrictions remain in place until combined CCR/LCC levels return to above 50%.
STAGE 2 - MODERATE WATER SHORTAGE -
Stage 2 of the Drought Contingency Plan would be triggered at CCR/LCC capacity levels of less than 30%. In Stage 2 drought conditions, lawn watering is limited to once every other week on designated days. Hand watering is allowed on any day but the hose must have an automatic shut off nozzle, a faucet filled bucket or watering can of (5) gallons or less. Stage 2 restrictions remain in place until combined CCR/LCC levels return to above 40%.
Stage 3 - CRITICAL WATER SHORTAGE -
Stage 3 begins when the combined storage level declines below 20% and can be terminated when combined lake levels increase above 30%.
- Irrigation of turf grass by any means shall be prohibited at all times.
- Drip irrigation for foundations and landscaped beds is allowed every other week on the designated schedule.
- Hand watering is allowed on any day but the hose must have an automatic shut off nozzle, a faucet filled bucket or watering can of (5) gallons or less.
WATER EMERGENCY
Level 1 - A Level 1 Water Emergency begins when the General Manager or designee, determines that the District is within 180 days of its total water supply not meeting its water demands.
Level 2 - A Level 2 Water Emergency begins when the General Manager, or designee determines that a water supply emergency exists, which causes the demand to exceed the supply, subsequently leading to imminent failure to maintain pressure that meets TCEQ minimum standards, including but not limited to:
- Major catastrophic infrastructure failure including but not limited to; failure of a dam or spillway structure, failure of a major water line such as the MRP or other large diameter water lines, and/or failure of the District's water treatment facilities; or
- Water production or distribution system limitations; or
- Natural or man-made contamination of the water supply source.
Rules for triggering water use restrictions were revised in order to better reflect the expanded surface water supply available to the Coastal Bend customers. The revised restrictions reflect the fact that water sources for the regional water system are now more diversified with surface water coming from the Colorado River and Lake Texana (on the Navidad River) in addition to Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir on the Nueces River.
