CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi Water Department is celebrating their one-year milestone of their 15-year consent decree agreementwith the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The decree was established in 2021 after a lawsuit was filed by the EPA because of the city's sanitary sewer overflows going into federal waters.
Under the terms of this agreement, the city has to pay a $1.1 million fine, plus the city has 15 years to get the wastewater system up to par.
The city says the implementation of the consent decree is ahead of schedule to include gravity main cleaning, inspections of manholes, force mains, lift stations, and treatment facilities.
The city has been working with federal leaders since 2008, when the EPA noticed sewage repeatedly overflowing into Corpus Christi Bay. Negotiations started a couple years later. Since then, the city says they have invested $83 million to inspect, clean, repair and replace sanitary sewer pipes.
The city says on their websitethat they have decreased sanitary sewer overflows significantly since 2008, with only 52 spills and overflows reported in 2020; versus 1,400 overflows previously cited in 2008.
To see the full agreement between the city, EPA and TCEQ, click here.
For more details on what the city is doing to improve Corpus Christi's water, click here.
