Corpus Christi City Council voted Tuesday to start negotiations to buy drinking water from a desalination plant owned by Corpus Christi Polymers, reversing course after the city scrapped its own desalination project last year. The 7-1 vote came as the city faces a deepening water shortage and the prospect of a formal emergency, according to city officials and the council’s discussion.
The council move would allow the city to pursue an agreement for water from a plant that is still under construction, with the company Aquatech expected to continue the project, expand it, and connect it to the city’s distribution system, city materials said. The proposed desalination would filter salt and other minerals out of seawater or salty groundwater to make it drinkable.
City officials said Corpus Christi is in the grips of a historic drought, and that two of its main reservoirs have fallen to 8.4% capacity. The city warned that the situation could force it to declare a water emergency within months, describing that as leaving the city with about 180 days’ supply of water left.
City manager Peter Zanoni told council members that desalination is a “drought-resistant, long-term solution” for providing water to the roughly 500,000 people across seven counties who depend on the city’s water system. While the council backed the negotiations, many members signaled caution about what they had previously weighed, including cost and potential environmental impacts of desalination.
Much of the debate drew on the city’s years-long effort to build a city-owned desalination plant, a project that council members had discussed for years with a target of producing 30 million gallons of drinking water per day by 2028. Over time, opponents said the projected price nearly doubled to more than $1.2 billion, and they also raised concerns about how highly salty discharge from desalination could affect Corpus Christi Bay, including the risk of “dead zones” in the bay’s coastal ecosystem.
After the city decided in September to scrap the city-owned plant, it tried to purchase the Corpus Christi Polymers desalination facility itself, but the city’s offer was rejected in October. Under the latest proposal, city officials said they are instead seeking to purchase water produced by the privately owned plant, which they said has secured state permits.
Council member Kaylyn Paxson supported at least moving forward with talks, saying she wanted the city to “move forward” on negotiations and that she wished the project “best speed and luck.” Council member Roland Barrera, who voted against the measure, said he was “really, really reluctant,” adding that he would be willing to support the idea once the city had worked out what he described as a good deal.
Other council members echoed the concern about avoiding a repeat of what happened before. Everett Roy, who voted for the measure, said the city should move cautiously and not put itself again in a situation of desperation, while Zanoni said he was looking forward to meeting with Aquatech to discuss next steps.
Zanoni described the city’s approach as “cautiously optimistic,” saying Aquatech would present its case and the city would analyze the proposal and bring something back to the council if it believes the company has a strong plan. City discussions also referenced the status of the desalination facility, which was described as around 90% complete as of October and expected to produce about 9 million gallons of water a day about a year after a contract is signed, according to reporting cited in the council materials.