As Corpus Christi teetered on the edge of a water supply disaster earlier this year, community organizers circulated a petition to dramatically increase the price of water for the region’s large industrial users during drought. They gathered almost 13,000 signatures, more than enough to put their proposal—called the Fair Water Amendment—on the ballot in November.
But the City Attorney’s office has recommended that City Council members block the effort using an obscure legal maneuver enacted by Texas’ Republican-led Legislature in 2023.
On Tuesday, council members will decide whether to take that step. It will be their last opportunity to intervene before an Aug. 17 deadline for the provision to be placed on the November ballot.
“The city attorney wants to use an unrelated state law to silence our community and let big industry keep their special deal,” said Isabel Araiza, a college professor in Corpus Christi and founder of the advocacy group For the Greater Good, which led the petition drive.
The debate over the measure, with multi-million-dollar implications for some of the largest energy companies in the nation, is the latest iteration of an increasingly fraught relationship between the residents of Texas’ eighth-largest city and the petrochemical plants and refineries that bolster its economy and consume most of its water.
