Corpus Christi, Texas, could be the first American city to run out of water. Working people face drought restrictions, but oil and gas companies guzzle water — and pay less than everyone else. Six huge corporate water users consume 3x as much as everyone in town. 

Correction: 7:18 The City Council voted down plans for the desalination plant September 2025, not 2026. 

Producer
Dan Lieberman

Editor
Kenneth Kerr

Videographers
Daoud Qamar
Mitchell Urbanovsky

Video Production Manager
Isabel Atalaya

Video Production Coordinator
Jodi Clemens

More Perfect Union is an Emmy-winning, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means: We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective. We attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions. We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power. And we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.