{"id":111,"date":"2025-10-13T12:20:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T12:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T12:20:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T12:20:43","slug":"after-pivotal-vote-corpus-christi-is-on-the-brink-of-a-water-shortage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111\/","title":{"rendered":"After pivotal vote, Corpus Christi is on the brink of a water shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Birds<\/p>\n

Birds fly over the Port of Corpus Christi as the sun sets Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n

Jon Shapley\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n

When Elida Castillo drives around Corpus Christi, she doesn\u2019t see a city about to run out of water. Instead, Castillo, who leads an environmental advocacy group called Chispa Texas, sees car washes opening; houses being built in new subdivisions; new refinery smokestacks sprouting along Corpus Christi Bay.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But the city is running out of water. If nothing changes by late next year the city will begin curtailing usage by 25%, leaving both residents and the region\u2019s massive petrochemical industry to figure how to make do with a lot less.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Lawmakers hope desalination can bring new water to Texas. Critics want protections for the coast.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The situation became even more dire in September, when city council members abruptly voted to stop work on a controversial seawater desalination plant called Inner Harbor, alarmed by the plant\u2019s ballooning cost \u2014 estimated at $1.2 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Corpus Christi is a \u201cmicrocosm of a bigger problem,\u201d said Drew Molly, who until recently was the chief operating officer of Corpus Christi Water. As the state\u2019s water crisis deepens, cities and communities will be faced with difficult questions: How much water do we need? How much are we willing to pay? And who will foot the bill?<\/p>\n

Desalinating seawater is one solution, offering the promise of a limitless, drought-free water. But the costs are extraordinary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the state leadership sees big, massive projects, and they look at local entities and go, why can’t you guys build this?\u201d Molly said. \u201cAnd the answer is we can\u2019t do it because we can\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Corpus Christi relies entirely on surface water, mostly from the Nueces River. But years of drought coupled with industry growth have sucked most of the city\u2019s reservoirs dry. The city\u2019s main source of water, Choke Canyon Reservoir, is at 11% capacity. Farther downstream, Lake Corpus Christi is 15% full.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A dashboard on the city\u2019s website displays the number of days until a water emergency: 416, 415, 414.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Corpus Christi countered Greg Abbott on a water plant. His office warns it could cost them funding<\/a><\/p>\n

The Inner Harbor project would have been the state\u2019s first ocean-based desalination plant in over a half century. The first in the country opened in Freeport, Texas, in 1961, a demonstration plant funded by the federal Office of Saline Water.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A postcard image of the first ocean-based desalination plant in the country, opened in Freeport, Texas, in 1961.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Robert Mace<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is an important step towards the achievement of one of man\u2019s oldest dreams: securing freshwater from saltwater,\u201d President John F. Kennedy said when the plant opened, speaking by phone at the dedication.<\/p>\n

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But after only eight years, federal funding ran out and the plant shuttered; without subsidy, the water was too expensive.<\/p>\n

‘Tip of the iceburg’<\/p>\n

City leaders worried about the cost of water produced by the Inner Harbor project, especially after new estimates this year put the plant\u2019s cost at $1.2 billion, a huge jump from the $760 million price tag from a year before. Water from the plant would cost roughly twice as much per thousand gallons as existing sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Environmentalists celebrated the council’s about-face. For years, they\u2019d pointed to studies that showed that discharging the plant\u2019s super-salty brine directly into the Corpus Christi Bay could raise salinity levels and harm marine life, threatening the region\u2019s coastal ecosystem and the tourism it supports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for some, it was too late to cancel a project that had become pivotal to the region\u2019s future. Banking on the new supply, city leaders had already sold most of the city\u2019s surface water to industrial users, as the fracking boom in west Texas led to new refineries and chemical plants along the Gulf Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Shortly after the vote, Moody\u2019s announced it was reviewing the city\u2019s bond rating, triggered by an \u201cunexpected acceleration of water depletion risk\u201d due to \u201cthe recent cancellation of a long-term effort to enhance \u2026 water supply without an adequate replacement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

State leaders called the decision shortsighted and said it undermined the credibility of the city, which had already accepted $231 million in state loans for the project. The city is on the hook for that debt \u2014 plus $136 million in interest \u2014 whether or not the desalination plant is ever built.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A sign sits in a residential yard\u00a0on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in the Hillcrest neighborhood in Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n

Jon Shapley\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n

That cost will get passed along to residential ratepayers through an $8 monthly charge, according to city documents. (Industrial users, which make up the bulk of the city\u2019s water supply, will skirt the cost because they are outside city limits.)<\/p>\n

Building the plant would have cost residential users only slightly more \u2014 around $11 a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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State leaders recognize that they will have to help foot the bill for large-scale water projects. Earlier this year, lawmakers agreed to carve out $1 billion from the state\u2019s tax revenue annually for 20 years to fund those efforts.<\/p>\n

But even that is \u201cthe tip of the iceberg of what\u2019s needed,\u201d said state Rep. Cody Harris, a Palestine Republican who authored the legislation for dedicated water funding. \u201cIn order to bring economies of scale into the picture and start to lower the cost of desalination, the state will have to play a large role in funding some of these projects very heavily up front.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growing industrial demand<\/p>\n

Industry leaders have been talking about desalinating seawater for 30 years, said Errol Summerlin, a retired lawyer who co-founded the Coastal Alliance to Protect our Environment, an alliance of grassroots groups and nonprofits, to fight the Inner Harbor plant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can’t help but look out over the bay and say, man, there’s got to be a way we can use that water,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the 2011 drought forced petrochemical plants to curtail water usage that the conversation got serious, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2018, industrial users agreed to pay an ongoing surcharge of $0.25 for every 1,000 gallons consumed in order to avoid having their water use restricted during future droughts. That surcharge, which was eventually raised to $0.31, was intended to fund new water projects, like desalination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of how they came up with 31 cents \u2026 was that they were going to pay for 100% of the costs of the new water supply project,\u201d said Molly, who now works as the chief water officer at Houston Public Works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Renoir<\/p>\n

Renoir LeMarcus Knox gets into his truck Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in the Hillcrest neighborhood in Corpus Christi. The neighborhood is mostly made of empty lots. \u201cThis is what the social injustice of petroleum looks like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jon Shapley\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t happened. To date, industrial users have paid just $31.5 million in surcharges, a fraction of even the Inner Harbor\u2019s initial price tag.<\/p>\n

Molly said large-volume users should be paying more to fund new water projects. \u201cThe industry uses most of our water, and they should pay probably a little bit more than what they\u2019ve been paying in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy is that not the case? I think it falls on the elected officials [and] staff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly half of the water sold by Corpus Christi Water goes to petrochemical companies and refineries, which use that water for cleaning, generating steam and cooling, said Bob Paulison, the executive director of the Coastal Bend Industry Association, a trade group.<\/p>\n

If water use is restricted, many plants will stop operating altogether or significantly scale back operations, he said, noting the industry had already made a \u201csubstantial contribution\u201d to the water utility through its rates and the $0.31 surcharge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s vote has created \u201ca lot of uncertainty\u201d for businesses, he said. \u201cThe question that\u2019s on everybody\u2019s mind is: What\u2019s the plan?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scrambling for alternatives<\/p>\n

The city council is still considering several options to resurrect the Inner Harbor project, including turning it over to the second-place bidder. The Gulf Coast Authority, a state entity based in Houston, has expressed interest in taking over the project<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must do something,\u201d Mayor Paulette Guajardo said during a water workshop in early October. \u201cThe clock is ticking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the city has started pumping groundwater from the Evangeline Aquifer into the Nueces River.<\/p>\n

And city manager Peter Zanoni reported that the city planned to buy the rights to pump nearly 23,000 acre feet of fresh groundwater from the Evangeline in nearby San Patricio County, which would be added to an existing pipeline carrying surface water to the city\u2019s water treatment facility. But even under the \u201cbest possible timeline,\u201d Molly told council members in September, that water wouldn\u2019t arrive in Corpus Christi until early 2029.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Residents and farmers who already use that groundwater are fiercely opposed to the deal. While most of San Patricio County \u2014 which includes the petrochemical complex clustered on the northern side of the bay \u2014 buys water from Corpus Christi, the city of Sinton relies entirely on groundwater.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to contest every permit they try to get,\u201d Sinton\u2019s city manager, John Hobson, said in an interview, noting that Corpus Christi planned to pump 65% of the groundwater district\u2019s available water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they would have approved desal, there’s no reason for them to come and take groundwater,\u201d he said. \u201cThey would have the water they needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental activists who have been critical of the desalination project see it as supporting the growth of an unsustainable industry that has only brought more pollution and inequality to Corpus Christi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are being forced into this idea that we need this desal plant because we\u2019re not going to have water,\u201d Castillo said. \u201cWell, y\u2019all are still talking about bringing on large-volume water users. You haven\u2019t had the industry curtail their usage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Summerlin agreed, saying the city should put a moratorium on new industrial growth while it secures its water supply. \u201cAs long as the city is promoting industrial development, we’re going to continually dig ourselves in a hole,\u201d he said. \u201cNo sooner do we get a new supply in place when a large industrial user comes calling for that water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But others see that growth as fundamental to the identity of the city \u2014 and state. \u201cYou just have to decide what kind of community you want to be,\u201d said Roland Barrera, a city council member who supports the Inner Harbor project. \u201cDo we want to foster economic growth and foster industry and do so responsibly or [just say] don\u2019t come to Corpus Christi, don\u2019t come to the coast? Because the demand for the product is still going to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many water experts are still bullish on seawater desalination. \u201cThere’s a realization out there that these projects are getting really large and cost prohibitive, but they\u2019re not really optional at some point,\u201d said Perry Fowler, the executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About a half dozen seawater desalination projects are in some stage of development along the Gulf Coast, from Brownsville to Freeport. Last week, an Arizona-based company called EPCOR filed permits with the state to build a seawater desalination plant in Texas City that would provide fresh drinking water to Harris and Galveston counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of these projects are being developed by private companies, which aim to sell the water to public utilities. \u201cWater is the new oil and gas,\u201d Molly said. \u201cYou have private sector companies that are coming in and trying to figure out how to have real space in this industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those companies can shoulder risk for longer \u2014 but ratepayers lose the transparency and accountability that come with public projects, Molly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully the lesson [from Corpus Christi] isn’t that it\u2019s going to be politically impossible to get a seawater desal plant through a publicly elected body,\u201d said Robert Mace, the executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. But, he said, it would likely \u201cput a damper\u201d on similar efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are very focused on the here and now \u2014 what’s happening with this water cost, how this affects my water bill,\u201d he said. \u201cWe live in a dry state and we face droughts. And these droughts are probably gonna get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birds fly over the Port of Corpus Christi as the sun sets Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Corpus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}