With water shortages or potential water shortages facing many cities across the US, governments are struggling with how to work with industry to ensure the organizations are not depleting too much of the available water sources.

Now, the town of Corpus Christi, Texas, may be implementing what it believes will be a solution: offering large-scale industrial companies a $0.25 drought surcharge exemption fee.

The fee would allow industrial customers to pay an extra $0.25 per 1,000 gallons of water use. The surcharge exemption fee would not be mandatory, but those that choose not to pay would have no guarantee of price stability and could see significant increases in any type of water allocation surcharges that may be assessed, according to the Corpus Christi Caller Times.

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