World
Corpus Christi at 8.5%: Two Years to the Nearest Fix
Corpus Christi authorized negotiations with a two-month-old startup as its only planned fix for a Level 1 emergency projected in December 2026. The company says two years to build, and negotiations have not concluded.
Corpus Christi's reservoirs hit 8.5% of capacity on May 20, putting roughly 500,000 Coastal Bend residents under Stage 3 cuts and a Level 1 emergency projected for December.
Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi have dropped from 47% combined capacity in 2021 to single digits. Recent rain extended the projected emergency from September to December.
Refineries, chemical plants, and port operations account for 50 to 60 percent of the city's water draw. Stage 3 restrictions have been in place since December 2024. A Level 1 emergency triggers when the system is 180 days from meeting demand, requiring a mandatory 25 percent cut.
The Contractor
On May 6, the City Council voted 6-2 to authorize negotiations with AXE H2O, a Houston-based company founded approximately two months before the vote. The proposal: 150 million gallons per day at $6.50 per 1,000 gallons.
The company says the plant could be operational "in as few as two years" from the start of construction. Negotiations have not concluded.
The only alternative that had reached this stage, the city's Inner Harbor plant, started at $222 million in 2020 and reached $1.2 billion by July 2025. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi researchers had warned that brine discharge would raise bay salinity. The council voted 6-3 to cancel in September 2025 after a 13-hour public meeting.
AXE H2O lists three principals on its website: two retired USAF major generals and a Corpus Christi chemical engineer. The company credits CEO Matt Burger with "overseeing $176 billion in Pentagon budget allocation" and chairman John M. Olson with White House and NASA senior executive roles. No prior water project appears in the public record for either.
The company says natural gas power, not electricity, brings the price to $6.50 per 1,000 gallons, roughly 30 percent below the Inner Harbor figure. Olson pitched it as "no public funds, no debt, no bond rating issues."
City Manager Peter Zanoni said the proposal "lacks detail" and contained "no business data to make a recommendation." Council Member Roland Barrera warned against a "fire sale."
Six voted yes. Council Member Everett Roy stated: "I'm not going to stop a water project because we didn't follow the right procedure."
Texas's state water plan virtually ignores climate change, relying on new surface reservoirs. The Water Development Board projects a drought of record would leave Texas 5 to 7 million acre-feet short by mid-century.
The authorization forces a fourteen-month problem into plain sight. The Level 1 threshold arrives December 2026. AXE H2O's own presentation claimed first water "in as few as two years" from construction start, and construction has not started.
Watch the NOAA seasonal outlooks due in June. If the warm Pacific pattern that bought the December reprieve fails to materialize, Corpus Christi crosses its emergency threshold before any contractor has broken ground.