CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 A sharply divided crowd filled council chambers as the\u00a0Corpus Christi City Council\u00a0voted to move forward with a new contract with\u00a0Corpus Christi Desal Partners (ccdp)\u00a0for the Inner Harbor desalination project \u2014 a proposal supporters say is essential to prevent the city from running dry.<\/p>\n
Public comment quickly revealed the depth of tension surrounding the project.\u201cI will give the city 5 million dollars to vote no today,\u201d one speaker told council members.<\/p>\n
Backers of the plant argued it is the only viable long-term solution as drought conditions persist and water demand grows.\u201cThis project remains the only project that can offer drought-proof long-term supply and is fully permitted with funding to build,\u201d another speaker said.<\/p>\n
Others warned the stakes are existential for the city. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have it in a couple of years you\u2019re not gonna have schools, you\u2019re not gonna have a town,\u201d one resident said. \u201cThis town is going to dry up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council members acknowledged the urgency. At-Large Councilwoman Carolyn Vaughn said updated projections show the city\u2019s water supply could be depleted sooner than previously expected.\u201cWe thought we were gonna run out of water in November, but it\u2019s gonna be sooner than that,\u201d Vaughn said. \u201cWe have to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, even some supporters raised concerns about unanswered environmental questions, including a far-field modeling study that would examine potential impacts to Corpus Christi Bay. \u201cThe question that you need to be asking the experts this year, whoever they are \u2014 why are you not doing the far-field modeling,\u201d one speaker said.<\/p>\n
Cost also weighed heavily on the discussion, with some leaders warning of long-term financial strain.\u201cWe are going to double our debt,\u201d District 5 Councilman Gil Hernandez cautioned. “Once we borrow that money, we have to pay it back, our hands will tied when it comes to rates.”<\/p>\n
In the end, the council voted 5-3, with one abstention, to advance the contract for the plant. Officials said the latest agreement comes in hundreds of millions of dollars lower than earlier estimates. The project sits at $978.7 million dollars, down from the price quoted by Kiewit last year of $1.3 billion. Shortly after, council decided not to move forward with Kiewit.<\/p>\n
Mayor Paulette Guajardo acknowledged Tuesday’s split vote but expressed optimism about collaboration moving forward. \u201cI would have loved a 9-0 vote. That would have been ideal,\u201d Guajardo said. \u201cPeople have their reservations and it doesn\u2019t mean those can\u2019t change. But I feel good \u2014 we have a good team with Corpus Christi Desal Partners, we have a good team with Corpus Christi Water, and we have a council who\u2019s willing to work with them. That\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take.\u201d<\/p>\n
The far-field study is expected to return to the council within weeks as city leaders continue balancing environmental concerns, financial risks and the push to secure a long-term water supply.<\/p>\n
The next big test for the project comes in April, when council will decide whether to move forward with a 60% design build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 A sharply divided crowd filled council chambers as the\u00a0Corpus Christi City Council\u00a0voted to move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4574,155,2950,71968,157,156,4575,2907,1906],"class_list":{"0":"post-179122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-carolyn-vaughn","9":"tag-corpus-christi","10":"tag-corpus-christi-city-council","11":"tag-corpus-christi-desal-partners","12":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","13":"tag-corpus-christi-news","14":"tag-inner-harbor-desal","15":"tag-mayor-paulette-guajardo","16":"tag-suzanne-stevens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179122","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=179122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}