By Anton Riecher
John J. Byrum, the authority’s executive director, told Medina County Commissioners that with its two major reservoirs operating at 19 percent of capacity the Nueces Basin is registering a daily deficit of nearly 235 million gallons. That deficit is expected to grow to 402 million gallons daily by 2070.
That estimate only includes population growth, not industrial demands, Byrum said.
“We need water and God gave us a big puddle of water just south of Corpu Christi called the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.
The Nueces River Authority serves as a regional water resource planning agency for all or part of 22 counties in South Texas, monitoring state and federal activities affecting the Nueces Basin. The desalination project calls for removing water yet replacing the brine as not to effect the deep sea ecology.
Support from Medina and other counties will be important when the authority approaches the Texas Legislature to fund the project, Byrum said.
