Overview
- New city modeling presented Tuesday shows two of five scenarios would trigger a Level 1 water emergency by May, the point at which supplies are projected to be 180 days from falling short of demand.
- The City Council approved moving ahead on the Evangeline groundwater project, earmarking about $190 million for construction and $170 million for land with groundwater rights, despite contested permits that could delay or derail the effort.
- Gov. Greg Abbott directed TCEQ to fast‑track temporary permits and pressed the Lavaca‑Navidad River Authority to lower its drought cutback trigger from 50% to 40% reservoir capacity, while publicly threatening possible state intervention.
- Reservoir storage that feeds the system has dropped to around 8.6% with bleak rainfall forecasts for summer, and although the city boosted its Lake Texana pipeline by 24 million gallons per day, drought rules could still constrain that supply.
- Officials revived desalination options by opening talks with CPS Energy on a Barney Davis power plant site and setting an April 9 meeting to reconsider the shelved Inner Harbor plant, as the city maintains it has nearly $1 billion in active water projects and rejects claims it will run out next year.