{"id":321419,"date":"2026-06-03T20:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/321419\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T20:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T20:38:09","slug":"exclusive-gov-abbotts-office-blasts-corpus-christi-city-council-after-inner-harbor-desalination-project-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/321419\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Gov. Abbott’s office blasts Corpus Christi city council after inner harbor desalination project delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

“When courage and leadership were badly needed, the Corpus Christi City Council once again completely failed the citizens they represent,\u201d said Gov. Abbott’s office.<\/p>\n

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Less than 12 hours after Corpus Christi City Council voted to delay a decision on the Inner Harbor Seawater Desalination Treatment Plant, Gov. Greg Abbott’s chief of staff sharply criticized the council’s handling of the project.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Gov. Abbott calls for investigation into Nueces River Authority allegations<\/a><\/p>\n


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\n This story continues below. <\/p>\n

In an exclusive statement obtained by 3NEWS on Wednesday afternoon, Robert Black, Gov. Abbott’s chief of staff, accused council members of failing to address the city’s long-term water needs.<\/p>\n

“The moment for leadership arrived, but the Council met it with a whimper and a complaint,” Black said.<\/p>\n

“For the second time in six months, the Council could have taken meaningful steps to meet the long-term water needs of their citizens. Instead, they chose to bicker, blame, and hide behind excuses and ‘studies’ rather than take action.”<\/p>\n

The comments come after a marathon Corpus Christi City Council meeting that stretched from Tuesday morning until 2:20 a.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

After more than 15 hours of discussion, council voted 7-2 to postpone consideration of the Inner Harbor desalination project until Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

Mayor Paulette Guajardo and At-Large Councilman Roland Barrera were the only members to vote against delaying the item.<\/p>\n

The proposed project carries a preliminary guaranteed maximum price of approximately $978.77 million. Council was considering a $78.6 million design-build contract that would have authorized final design work, development of a demonstration plant and continued work toward a guaranteed maximum price.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the project have argued the facility is necessary to help secure a long-term, drought-resistant water supply for the Coastal Bend. Opponents have raised concerns about increasing costs, environmental impacts and whether additional far-field modeling is needed before moving forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The debate intensified Tuesday after a group of 13 scientists affiliated with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Harte Research Institute and the University of Texas Marine Science Institute\u00a0released an assessment of the project’s far-field environmental modeling.<\/a><\/p>\n

The scientists concluded the modeling efforts had “not produced convincing evidence that desalination would not have detrimental ecological effects across the Corpus Christi Bay system,” while also acknowledging the region’s need for long-term water supplies.<\/p>\n

In Wednesday’s statement, Black argued the state has already taken significant steps to help address the region’s water challenges.<\/p>\n

“Governor Abbott and the State of Texas have done their part: we have expedited funding and permits for new wells, paid for pipeline upgrades, fully permitted the Inner Harbor Plant, and provided more than $800 million in funding for water projects,” Black said.<\/p>\n

The statement marks one of the strongest public criticisms yet from the governor’s office regarding Corpus Christi’s handling of its water supply strategy.<\/p>\n

“When courage and leadership were badly needed, the Corpus Christi City Council once again completely failed the citizens they represent,” Black said.<\/p>\n

The council’s decision does not kill the project. Instead, members voted to revisit the proposal Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

Between now and then, city leaders are expected to continue reviewing environmental concerns, project costs and other issues raised during Tuesday’s debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“When courage and leadership were badly needed, the Corpus Christi City Council once again completely failed the citizens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-321419","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\/321419","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=321419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}