The City of Corpus Christi is turning to the Gulf of Mexico for a solution to its water shortage. The city announced in October it will move forward with what could be the state’s first municipal ocean desalination project.
In an October media release, it was announced the evaluation committee had completed its review of the three city council-approved proposers for delivery of the 30-million-gallon-per-day Inner Harbor Seawater Desalination Treatment Plant Project. Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. came out on top. Construction is expected to be completed by late 2027 or early 2028.
Kiewit Infrastructure South Co., a privately-owned company based in Westlake, Texas, was created in 1969 by the 140-year-old Kiewit Corporation for delivery of complex water/wastewater treatment projects. Kiewit employs over 1,600 personnel at their 400-acre fabrication and laydown yard in Ingleside, Texas. The parent company has had experience in the design and construction of desalination plants elsewhere in the United States.
The Corpus Christi desalination plant is part of a $1 billion strategy agreed to by the state senate in 2023 to triple the Texas water supply by 2033 by building new water projects and repairing aging infrastructure.
Currently, the city supplies water to half a million people by relying on surface water from four sources. All four surface water sources are solely dependent on rainfall and are purified at a single water treatment facility which treats about 25 billion gallons of water each year.
“Corpus Christi Water (CCW) has researched several water sources, including treated wastewater effluent reuse, aquifer storage and recovery, groundwater, surface water and seawater desalination,” the city says.
However, conventional surface water sources are finite and require further treatment in the city’s sole treatment plant.
The advantage of sea water is that it is drought-proof and introduces a new supply and additional source of treatment plant to purify the water for distribution to customers. The desalination plant will be located beside the Inner Harbor ship channel linking the Port of Corpus Christi to the Gulf of Mexico and would draw and discharge into the channel.
Desalination is a relatively costly process and requires significant energy.
The Texas Water Development Board estimates the average cost to produce about 326,000 gallons (one-acre-foot) of desalinated water from seawater ranges from approximately $800 to about $1,400, versus a cost of approximately $350 to $800 to produce that same volume from brackish groundwater.
Desalination can also potentially disturb the environment both when the plant takes in water and when it discharges brine. However, an environmental report tabled by the city in 2021 stated there would be a “negligible impact to Corpus Christi Bay and aquatic life,” assuming the utilization of proven methodologies.
Water shortages have been acute in Corpus Christi as the heat in the area becomes more extreme. This past spring, the city put Stage 2 restrictions into place which, among other things, permitted landscape watering only once every two weeks. However large industrial users such as refineries and plastics factories, users of 50 per cent of the municipal water, were not restricted, drawing the ire of citizens.
Even with the desalination plant in operation in 2028, water rates for citizens could jump by 50 per cent in the next five years, according to report made to Corpus Christi City Council last January. In fact, in September wastewater rate increases of 9.0 per cent effective this month were announced.
One local resident complained to a public meeting that he thought industry would get the desalinated water but that city residents would have to pay for it.
“The City of Corpus Christi needs to understand that water is what is needed by the community — not by industrial factories.”
In response, Drew Molly, the chief operating officer for Corpus Christi Water, admitted local industries do use a lot of water.
According to a city media release, low-interest loans were obtained from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) for this project beginning in 2017. Over the years, the SWIFT program has resulted in board commitments of nearly $11.5 billion to fund implementation of recommended water management strategy projects within the state’s water plan.
In 2020, SWIFT had previously awarded Corpus Christi $222 million to build a desalination plant when plans foresaw a 20 million gallon per day facility. That daily yield has been increased now to 30 million.
In July 2024, the Texas Water Development Board, under its SWIFT program, approved a further $535 million in multi-year financing for the Corpus Christi desalination treatment plant.
The city says CCW will also compete for another source of funds from SWIFT and a federal grant from the United States Bureau of Reclamation.
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