Water sourced from Corpus Christi Polymers is back on the table — but this time, to buy the desalinated water instead of a previous proposal to acquire the plastics facility’s desalination plant.
The City Council is expected to consider in its March 24 meeting giving the staff the go-ahead to evaluate the project and open negotiations with a third party, known as Aquatech, to purchase water from CCP’s desalination plant.
A proposal, delivered to city officials in February, involves a “longterm purchase agreement of potable water from the CC Polymers Plant to the City of Corpus Christi,” a memo shows.
Corpus Christi Bay at Cole Park in Corpus Christi on Dec. 12, 2025.
City officials had weighed the possible purchase of CCP’s desalination plant last year.
Early quotes for acquiring it at a capacity of about 9 million gallons of water per day totaled about $225 million, city officials said in October.
CCP had pitched to the council that instead of buying a plant, a water supply agreement could be pursued, staff said.
The desalination plant at the time was estimated to be between 90% and 95% complete, Nick Winkelmann, interim chief operating officer of Corpus Christi Water, had told the council.
Ultimately, though, the owners of CCP decided not to sell the desalination plant.
The desalination plant at present is not complete, City Manager Peter Zanoni wrote in a March 19 message to the Caller-Times, stating that Aquatech “would take all necessary design and construction steps to get the plant to be operable.”
About 9 million gallons of water per day could be produced initially, he added, but the volume could be increased to 14 million gallons per day.
“They would expand the plant to have the max water needed for CCP when it opens and then sell us the difference, 5 more MGD,” Zanoni wrote.
CCP’s plastics plant is not complete, he wrote.
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The sale of treated water from CCP’s desalination plant is the second proposal that has seen a new look in recent weeks.
The council on March 17 moved to begin formal talks with CPS Energy for potential development of a desalination plant on the electricity provider’s Barney Davis Power Plant property.
Locating a desalination plant at Barney Davis is a concept that has intermittently been raised for several years.
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Plastics plant proposes sale of desalinated water to Corpus Christi