CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Coastal Bend is feeling the pressure of a dwindling water supply. As we continue to report on our looming water crisis, we're listening to concerns from you – our neighbors. One of the biggest questions we get is about industry.
First off, when we say "industry," you might think of all the big plants and refineries — like Valero, Flint Hills, Cheniere, and Citgo — that are all over the Corpus Christi and Nueces bays.
But industry can be different, depending who you ask. Corpus Christi Water and the Texas Water Development Board classifies these users differently. So when it comes to how much water industry uses, the math gets complicated.
"A large volume user is just one user that uses a large volume of water. Think of an industrial customer like Valero or Citgo," Corpus Christi Water Chief Operating Officer Nick Winkelmann said.
Pretty clear, right? As for raw wholesale customers, it's difficult to pinpoint, since there's a lot of reselling involved.
"Corpus Christi Water sells the water to that entity, and they resell it. So, some of our wholesale customers include the South Texas Water Authority, the San Patricio Municipal Water District, uh, Nueces County WCID number 4. Those are our some of our wholesale water customers," Winkelmann said.
Look at this graph from February 2026. You'll see the large volume and raw wholesale groups take about 60% of the city's water.
Since we can't zoom in any further with the city, let's zoom out to the state. The Texas Water Development Board collects survey data on water use. This data compiles estimates provided by large volume users in our region. Digging through the 2024 numbers, these users purchased about 60 million gallons a day. This is also roughly 60% of our water.
So, no matter who you call industry, these users are taking a big slice of the pie.
So, what's being done to reduce industrial water use?
Well, companies like Flint Hills and Valero are working with the city to cut back — using less treated and raw water, and using recycled wastewater or "effluent." On top of that, local drought rules call for extra fees to encourage everyone to use less.
And then there's "pro rata." Latin for "in proportion," it's the last move in a drought contingency plan. All customers get less water — and that cut is proportional to normal use.
"Pro rata allocations are determined across all customer classes. One thing it's important to note that we have to be fair in the approach, per state and federal law, and we have to work with those entities together to implement any of those allocations," Winkelmann said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
