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<\/p>\nA top executive walked away moments after the board cleared the agency\u2019s director in an internal investigation.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 The Harbor Island desalination project moved a major step closer to reality after the Nueces River Authority selected an international company to help build the massive facility.<\/p>\n
But while board members approved the partnership and celebrated the future of water security for the Coastal Bend, the meeting quickly spiraled into controversy involving an internal investigation and the resignation of one of the agency\u2019s top executives.<\/p>\n
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The Nueces River Authority Board selected IDE Technologies as its partner for the proposed 100 million gallon per day Harbor Island desalination plant. The company, based in Israel, was also the top-ranked choice recommended by NRA Executive Director John Byrum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deeply admire the vision that the board has come up with to go forward, and we are ready to get started today,\u201d said Mark Ellison with IDE Technologies. \u201cWe are ready to go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board members entered executive session before making the decision between the two finalist companies competing for the contract.<\/p>\n
Byrum praised IDE\u2019s global experience and called the company a proven leader in desalination.<\/p>\n
\u201cIDE ranked number one in the evaluation by the team,\u201d Byrum said. \u201cThey produce over 1.5 billion gallons a day of drinking water and have done so for 60 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the biggest drama unfolding at the meeting centered around an investigation involving Byrum himself.<\/p>\n
The board discussed allegations raised by NRA Chief Operating Officer Travis Pruski, who accused Byrum of being misleading about how many cities and communities had formally committed to participate in the desalination project.<\/p>\n
After reviewing the findings, board chairman Eric Burnett said investigators found no evidence of intentional misconduct.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis investigation did not reveal facts or evidence to show intentional wrongdoing by Mr. Byrum or anyone else associated with the NRA,\u201d Burnett told the board.<\/p>\n
Then came the biggest surprise.<\/p>\n
Moments after the investigation discussion wrapped up, Pruski took the podium and announced he was resigning from the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t participate in this culture any longer,\u201d Pruski said. \u201cI can no longer be part of this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emotional resignation stunned many in attendance and at least temporarily shifted the focus of the meeting away from the desalination vote itself.<\/p>\n
Despite the internal turmoil, Byrum said the timeline for the Harbor Island project remains unchanged. The plant is still expected to begin producing water by December 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top executive walked away moments after the board cleared the agency\u2019s director in an internal investigation. CORPUS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-306047","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\/306047","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=306047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}