A nearly $1 billion water project is headed back to City Council, but several members appear ready to vote against moving it forward again.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The proposed Inner Harbor desalination plant is headed back to Corpus Christi City Council next week, but the biggest question is not the project’s price tag.
It is whether the project can get enough votes to move forward.
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Several council members who have opposed the project in the past are signaling they may do so again, potentially putting the future of the Inner Harbor desalination project in jeopardy.
Corpus Christi City Council is scheduled to vote Sept. 1 on whether to spend about $78 million to take the project to 60% design completion.
Councilman Mike Cantu says he is frustrated that the project continues to return to the council agenda after previous attempts to move it forward have failed.
“We need to figure out what we’re going to do on this Inner Harbor project because I’m pretty much tired seeing it on the agenda every two or three months, you know. I think we have voted down this project probably a handful of times, you know, and it’s still coming, you know. Like that crazy ex-girlfriend, you know.”
The project has been rejected and delayed before, but city officials continue to bring it back for consideration.
City Manager Peter Zanoni says the latest proposal includes a price certain for design and construction. The estimated total cost is about $978 million.
“Corpus Christi Desal Partners, working at my direction, worked on a proposal where they developed a price certain proposal, and so their price all in for design and construction was 978 million.”
That figure is down from a previous projection of about $1.3 billion.
Councilman Mark Scott says holding the price at roughly the same level despite delays is a positive development.
“We’re going to hear that the price is going to stay the same, which is actually a victory that we continue to delay a project and expect it to be the same cost.”
But Councilwoman Carolyn Vaughn says she still has questions about the project, including whether desalination in the bay is safe.
“You’ve got to remember, you still don’t have a study back. We don’t know if it’s safe in the bay. Nobody has done that yet.”
Vaughn also questions whether taxpayers should be responsible for the cost of a project she says is primarily intended to provide water for industry.
“I have said this many times: It is not for the taxpayers. It is for industry, so let industry step up and help with that cost.”
The council is scheduled to vote Sept. 1 on whether to spend the approximately $78 million needed to advance the project to 60% design completion.
With several council members who have opposed the project before signaling they may vote against it again, the Inner Harbor desalination proposal could face another major setback.
A rejection would put the project’s current path forward in serious doubt.