After two delays, the Corpus Christi City Council has approved new water emergency guidelines, such as curtailment percentages — but with a hitch.
Two major items — water baselines and allocations for wholesalers and multifamily units, such as apartment complexes — aren’t necessarily finalized and may not be for as long as two months.
That means curtailment percentages approved by the council June 2 may be updated if there are significant changes to recommendations for those categories after additional meetings and data collection, according to staff.
The policies and surcharges passed by the council would only go into effect if the city reached a water emergency, which would be called if or when the city is projected to be six months from total water supply falling short of demand.
The most recent projection of when that could occur is December; however, an updated projection that would factor in recent rainfall is expected to be presented June 23.
Approved by the council June 2 was a curtailment percentage of 25%, to be applied across all customer classes — residential, industrial, wholesalers and commercial businesses — should a water emergency be called.
Also approved were water use baselines — that is, the volume of water that is the starting point from which 25% curtailment would be calculated.
For example, a blanket baseline of 8,000 gallons of water usage per month was selected for residential accounts.
That means allocations would put an upper limit of 6,000 gallons of water use per month.
Households are able to request from the city increases in allocations through a variance.
Industrial customers, commercial businesses and wholesalers each have individualized baselines.
Surcharges would apply to all customers who exceed their allocations and baselines that would be in effect in a water emergency, according to the approved ordinance.
As approved by the City Council, all customers would be charged $4 per 1,000 gallons of water use over the allocation, the number increasing to $8 per 1,000 gallons of water usage over baselines.
Large-volume users who pay a drought surcharge exemption fee for drought Stages 1 to 3 would not be exempted from a surcharge during a water emergency, officials said.
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Here’s how much water you would be allowed to use in water emergency
Reporting by Kirsten Crow, Corpus Christi Caller Times / Corpus Christi Caller Times
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