‘Unlimited water\u2019 no more? Coastal Bend cities explore partnership as shortages and salinity concerns grow<\/a><\/p>\nNo vote was taken during the meeting, but tensions ran high as officials debated not only the desalination project itself, but also the purpose and timing of the workshop.<\/p>\n
Council members questioned whether the meeting was necessary, noting the full council is already scheduled to meet in the coming days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to expense staff, time, energy,\u201d District 4 Councilwoman Kaylynn Paxson said. \u201cAll of us had to stop our schedules \u2026 and we\u2019re not actually anti-desal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Paulette Guajardo defended the decision to hold the workshop, saying it was intended to keep the public informed about the status of the project and outstanding issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public knowing where this contract is, what is still missing from it, what we\u2019re waiting on \u2026 is important,\u201d Guajardo said. \u201cWe address these issues for the public, which is who we work for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed Inner Harbor desalination plant remains a key part of the city\u2019s long-term water strategy, but major questions persist \u2014 including whether city leaders will have enough information to move forward later this month.<\/p>\n
District 5 Councilman Gil Hernandez expressed skepticism that critical data will be ready in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThe far-field model \u2026 it\u2019s not going to be complete. I\u2019m not sure if we\u2019re going to have the information on the PFAS stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
PFAS \u2014 often referred to as \u201cforever chemicals\u201d due to their persistence in the environment \u2014 became another flashpoint during the meeting.<\/p>\n
At-large Councilman Roland Barrera downplayed concerns, suggesting they were being used to stall the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cPFAS is basically everywhere,\u201d Barrera said. \u201cIt seems that that\u2019s another item that\u2019s used as a tool \u2026 just to obstruct.\u201d<\/p>\n
The debate comes as the city awaits findings from its far-field modeling committee, which is studying how discharge from the proposed plant could impact surrounding waters.<\/p>\n
City Manager Peter Zanoni said initial findings from the committee will be presented to the council on April 28, though final results are not expected until June.<\/p>\n
That timeline could complicate any near-term decision on the desalination project, leaving the city\u2019s path forward on water supply uncertain as discussions continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Corpus Christi water workshop turned heated as officials clashed over desalination, PFAS concerns and whether enough data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-244397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244397","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=244397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}