Periodic drought conditions are nothing new for the Texas Gulf Coast. A statewide drought that began in 2021 is currently hitting the region around Corpus Christi particularly hard. Without significant precipitation soon, the drought could reach emergency status by late 2026, and is prompting urgent contingency planning by area water utilities as well as refineries, chemical facilities and other large-scale industrial water users.
As of mid-November 2025, the Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir System — the primary water supply resource for the city of Corpus Christi and surrounding communities — reported total available volume had dropped to 10% of capacity.
Without enough precipitation to reverse an accelerating rate of depletion of area reservoirs, a Stage 1 water emergency could be triggered by Fall 2026, forcing curtailment of water supplies for refineries and other high-volume industrial users.
Essential Infrastructure
For refineries in the Corpus Christi area — including some that are among the largest in the nation — availability of large volumes of water is essential to a range of process operations.
Water consumption for an individual refinery varies by size, efficiency and type of operations, but for the entire Southeastern Gulf Coast fleet aggregate consumption is estimated to be more than 300 billion gallons per year.
Some entities in the Texas Gulf Coast region are scrambling to avert a crisis. Authorities at Corpus Christi Water, the water utility serving the metro region, are assembling a package of contingency options designed to maintain water supplies. However, even if all options prove feasible, projected water supplies still could be limited.
For industrial users — who would be among the first to be curtailed in a Stage 1 emergency — similar contingency planning is underway. On-site treatment and reuse of wastewater effluent generated by daily operations is a primary option. Refineries have long considered this pathway during past drought cycles, but most have deferred action due to high costs of installing wastewater treatment and supporting utilities as well as other technical challenges.
However, under the current conditions — including the recent rejection of a proposed 30 million-gallon-per-day (MGD) desalination plant by local Corpus Christi authorities — water reuse is gaining momentum as a top option among possible contingency plans.
Evaluating Options
With a tight time frame to prepare, construction of permanent water reuse treatment systems is unrealistic in the near term. That leaves rental of modular, packaged water treatment systems as the most feasible short-term solution. With pre-engineered, modular water treatment systems that can be operational within a 12-month window, some basic water needs of refineries could be met for a time if water supply curtailment becomes a reality.
However, even this option comes with challenges. Permitting may still be required for construction of electrical utilities and certain water conveyance infrastructure. Even for an expedited permitting application process, the time frames could span many months.
Engineering design could proceed while the permitting application is pending, but procurement of certain essential equipment could pose another obstacle. Lead times for procurement of critical electrical equipment such as transformers, cables and motor control centers are currently running 24 months or longer.
Whether it’s from internal operations or from publicly owned treatment facilities, wastewater reuse requires careful analysis and planning due to the potential for certain technical issues. Protecting the treatment equipment, managing waste streams from the treatment system, and selecting appropriate materials for construction all require careful consideration. Doing so maximizes run time, reuse rates and asset life, and minimizes operations cost on a per-gallon basis.
Reason for Optimism
Though it is unlikely that any one solution such as wastewater reuse would resolve the entire range of short- and longer-term challenges, the combination of contingency planning by multiple stakeholders along with the promise of new public funding leaves some reason for optimism.
The Fall 2025 passage of Proposition 4 in Texas opens the potential for up to $1 billion to be spent each year on water infrastructure for the next 20 years. A recently delayed 30 MGD desalination plant project near Corpus Christi could be one beneficiary of the new funding, along with many other projects that would add resiliency to address periodic droughts.
Though time is not on anyone’s side in addressing the immediate challenges, partnering with qualified consulting engineers is a strategy that would likely pay dividends. The combination of insights into the intricacies of industrial wastewater treatment and refinery operations is a means to develop a range of contingencies that leave refineries with resiliency to continue operations should the worst occur.
There is no substitute for experience when the margins for error are so small and the stakes so large.
