April 2, 2026 – SOURCE: U.S. Drought Monitor
Orange Grove, Texas: The Evangeline/Goliad Sands Aquifer, the community’s primary source of water, dropped 17 feet a few days after Corpus Christi started drawing water from the aquifer last month. The increased usage has also elevated the concentration of particulates in the water.
By Bill Churchwell – Tue, March 31, 2026 – SOURCE
Residents and officials in Orange Grove are watching a once-reliable water supply shift faster than anyone expected. The city’s primary source of drinking water, the Evangeline/Goliad Sands Aquifer, historically considered stable, is now showing decline in water levels and rising mineral content.
“This is something we’ve been monitoring and tracking of what’s going on in our region since June of last year.” said Orange Grove City Administrator Todd Wright. “What we noticed is in correlation whenever the Western well field was approved to be turned online through Governor Abbott’s executive orders, and the city of Corpus Christi announced that on Thursday, March 19th is when they were going to be turning the well field on to produce the 5 million gallons per day. When we came and did our readings on that Monday — four days later — we saw the largest drawdown event in history of Orange Grove’s monitoring. We saw a 17 ft drop in our aquifer.”
Wright says it was expected to last decades under prior plans.
“This was developed in 2010,” Wright said. “It’s a 70 year plan that we were gonna be sufficient with our aquifer. So to have these, these drastic changes had definitely, sped the timeline,” said Wright.
But recent pumping from neighboring areas has accelerated the stress on the system.
“City of Orange Grove uses 300,000 gallons daily. So that’s 0.3 million gallons per day. Whereas we’re currently seeing — as of last week, just through the well fields that City of Corpus has put in rural Nueces County — they’re pumping 10 million gallons per day, so you can see the pumping disparity there, and this is something our aquifer hasn’t has seen. It’s being overworked, over pumped,” Wright explained.
The increased pumping has also affected water quality.
“The operational threshold for TCEQ EPA standards is 1200 mg per liter for drinking water. So you definitely don’t want to go past that because, that’s when you start impacting drinking water.”
“Historically, we haven’t seen TDS levels go this high. On average it’s right around 870 mg per liter. Recently, as of yesterday, our readings were at 1140,” Wright said. “So on average it’s right around that 870 mg per liter. Recently, as of yesterday, our readings were at 1140.”
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Local ranchers are feeling the impact on the land. Bruce Mumme, who operates Triple M Ranch just outside Orange Grove showed the effects firsthand.
“This used to be grass behind me… I’ve got half the amount of cows I used to because I’m having to feed them. I probably will go down more,” Mumme said.
“The well used to be at 200 feet, and I had to drop it down to 260 because it was cavitating at 200…”
Mumme also highlighted drying ponds on his property:
“I’ve let my ponds go down dry. Only one has water. The only thing growing is mesquites… This used to be all green, now it’s almost like a dust, sand dunes almost.”
City leaders say they are actively seeking solutions, including infrastructure upgrades and collaboration with neighboring communities like Alice.
“We’re actually gonna have our first meeting with the City of Corpus Christi tomorrow. The point of that meeting is for us to talk about current conditions, what each entity is doing to share our data with them,” Wright said.
Officials stress that water is still safe to drink, but the situation is troubling.
“Our drought contingency plan is based off the aquifer level, the static water level. So once we hit 170 ft water table, that is when we began our stage one voluntary drought contingent. As of yesterday, that water level was sitting at 165, so we’re only 5 ft away from having to go into our drought contingency plan. I will add to that that the City of Orange Grove has only once in its history had to go into drought contingency in 2008, and that was only to the voluntary stage.”
Residents are encouraged to stay updated through the city’s Facebook page and press releases as new information becomes available.
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