Citizen petition drive exceeds goal by almost 33%
Organizers of the Fair Water Amendment petition drive turned in 12,776 voter signatures to Corpus Christi City Hall yesterday, the latest development in the campaign to place a City Charter amendment on the November ballot that if approved would require large industrial water users to pay applicable surcharges during declared drought stages.
Since 2018, Corpus Christi has allowed large industrial water users to pay a “drought surcharge exemption fee” to avoid paying applicable drought surcharges and meeting curtailments requirements. The exemption fee is currently .31 per 1,000 gallons. Per the city’s March 2025 Drought Contingency Plan, under the current Stage 3 drought, if large water users were instead paying the applicable surcharges set by the City Council, their rate would be $6.00 per 1,000 gallons for use over 12.8 million gallons per month – or about 20 times the exemption fee.
The citizen-initiated petition drive to place the Fair Water Amendment on the November ballot kicked off in February, supported by the CAN coalition of community groups and led by For The Greater Good and Texas Campaign for the Environment. To ensure the proposed City Charter amendment appears on the November ballot, organizers needed to gather signatures from 5% of city voters, estimated at 9,638 people. On Monday, campaigners turned in nearly 33% more signatures than required. City Secretary Rebecca Huerta will now undertake a validation process, after which the City Council will be required to vote to place the item on the ballot.
“The City Council could have voted at any time to repeal the exemption fee program and end this ‘drought handout’ for wealthy corporations, but they’ve refused, year after year,” said Dr. Isabel Araiza, co-founder of For The Greater Good. “Their inaction forced the community to take the matter into our own hands. Our successful petition drive means that the decision to end this deeply unfair policy will now be in the hands of Corpus Christi voters.”
Environmental advocate Armon Alex, who helped lead the petition-gathering effort, said the response from voters was overwhelming. “Everywhere we want, we heard the same thing over and over – people are angry about being asked to conserve and pay more during drought, while the biggest water users buy their way out of the same rules. We collected nearly 13,000 signatures because people know what's at stake: if we keep letting big industry out of doing their fair share, we're all at greater risk of a prolonged water crisis.”
After the petition is verified by the City Secretary, the City Council will also vote on final ballot language, and petition organizers have proposed the following: “Shall Article IX of the City Charter be amended to terminate and prohibit programs that exempt large industrial water users from drought surcharges or curtailment requirements during declared drought stages, and require large industrial water users to pay drought surcharges at rates set by the City Council in the March 2025 Drought Contingency Plan?”