Corpus Christi voters on Nov. 3 approved a charter amendment that ends the city’s practice of exempting its biggest industrial water users from drought surcharges, according to the Nueces County elections office’s unofficial count. Proposition B passed 56,876 to 26,203, or 68.46% to 31.54%, with 122 of 128 precincts counted in the last report, posted at 12:07 a.m. Nov. 4. Official results had not been posted by the city as of Nov. 5.
The vote lands in a city that has spent much of two years short of water. Combined storage in Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi, the city’s main supplies, stood at 37.3% on Nov. 4, according to the city’s water page, and the city remains under Stage 1 restrictions. Inside Climate News reported, in a story carried by Texas Public Radio, that ExxonMobil, Valero and OxyChem are among the largest users, and that an ExxonMobil-SABIC plastics plant used 13.5 million gallons a day in 2025.
The amendment’s text, in the election ordinance, sets the terms. A “large industrial user” is any city or wholesale-customer account that uses at least 100,000 gallons a day for industrial processing, large-scale data-center operations or large-scale energy generation. Hydroelectric and agricultural uses are excluded. Neither the city nor any wholesale customer may create, renew or extend a program that exempts such users from drought surcharges or curtailment.
During a declared drought stage, the amendment requires surcharges on use above 12,842,000 gallons a month. The minimum rates are $3 per 1,000 gallons in Stage 2, $6 in Stage 3 and $12 in a water emergency. The amendment sets no surcharge in Stage 1, the stage the city is in now. Wholesale customers must collect the surcharge and pass it to the city. Industrial users must also meet each stage’s conservation and curtailment rules.
Two clocks start. Within 30 days of voter approval, the city must send written notice to each large industrial user and wholesale customer that it intends to end any exemption. Termination then takes effect no later than the first business day after a five-year notice period, so existing arrangements could run for years. The amendment also says it does not require the city to breach an existing express contract term, but it applies fully to contracts signed, renewed or amended after approval. The City Council must adopt code and contract changes to carry it out.
The program being ended is a drought surcharge exemption fee of 31 cents per 1,000 gallons, which city materials describe as bringing in about $6 million a year. Texas Public Radio reported that the exemption dates to 2018 and was meant to help pay for seawater desalination, a plant the council cancelled in 2025 as costs climbed.
Opponents and supporters both expect a court fight. City Manager Peter Zanoni told Texas Public Radio the result carries significant legal implications and that he expects challenges, including before the Public Utility Commission. Councilman Roland Barrera, who opposed the measure, told KIII that city residents use about 13% of the water and that ratepayers outside the city had no vote. Dolly Gonzales Trolley of Voices for Coastal Bend Energy told KIII the ballot wording was confusing and that challenges could reach the state level. Armon Alex of Texas Campaign for the Environment, which backed the measure, said litigators are ready to defend it.
Next up is the official canvass, followed by the city’s 30-day notices to industrial users, which would fall in early December, and the council’s implementing changes. Council runoffs on Dec. 12 will help decide who writes them.