CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Nueces County commissioners were considering a partnership with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi that would allow researchers to install groundwater monitoring wells in several county parks.
“This would be a partnership that allows the university to access inland parks in Nueces County, so property that we own, to be able to access for water studies,” Commissioner John Marez said.
The wells would be placed at LaBonte Park, Hazel Bazemore Park, and Bishop Park. Each well would be about two inches in diameter and would be between 25 to 45 feet deep.
“These are monitoring wells, which means they’re used not for extracting water from the ground, just to monitor water levels and chemistry,” said Dr. Dorina Murgulet, a hydrogeologist at TAMU-CC.
Murgulet explained the wells would help scientists and county officials better understand how drought, flooding, and pollution affect groundwater — especially in rural areas.
“We have so many communities, so many individual households that are impacted with water scarcity. There's not able to connect to a water system because of the cost of it or because they're where they're located,” Marez said.
Because the county owns the parks, officials said the project would not require third-party approvals or taxpayer funding.
“We’re very dependent on precipitation. Think about it as banking it. Anything that infiltrates into the ground, it’s like you’re adding to the bank, to the water bank,” Murgulet said.
County commissioners were expected to vote on the agreement on April 24.
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