The future of the Inner Harbor seawater desalination plant — a project that has proceeded and then faltered, resumed and then halted, for over two years — could see a decision that would be final on whether it is effectively killed, potentially before a new Corpus Christi City Council is seated.
Some council members have indicated interest in putting the project to bed once and for all, exploring the possibility of terminating environmental permits previously issued by the state.
However — like all of the council’s decisions in the present term related to the Inner Harbor — there’s a counter sentiment expressed by supporters, who have said that while the project may be at full standstill for the remainder of the year, a new council slate seated
after the November election may have a change of heart.
The dueling ambitions represent, again, a now-established limbo for the project — planned to generate as much as 30 million gallons of treated water per day — marked most notably by 5-4 and 6-3 votes against advancing design contract awards that would substantially close the gap between concept and construction.
Mayor Paulette Guajardo, who is running for reelection, vowed in a Sept. 13 message to the Caller-Times that she would bring the Inner Harbor project back to the table in January, stating that “securing a reliable, long-term water supply remains the most important responsibility of the City Council.”
“I believe we have a dire responsibility to keep working toward progress rather than walking away,” she wrote. “Water is an absolute necessity. We must build water now.”
City Councilwoman Sylvia Campos, who has been a consistent critic of the project, has advocated for canceling existing permits that authorize the proposed plant’s operations, issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Campos has cited concerns of the potential for harm to the ecology of the bay system, as well as its planned location adjacent to the Hillcrest subdivision, a historically Black and Hispanic neighborhood.
Existing permits allow for the proposed desalination plant to draw from the Inner Harbor ship channel as much as 93,000 acre feet of seawater per year for processing and release into the ship channel as much as 51.5 million gallons per day of concentrated discharge.
“All that's left is to pull the permits,” wrote Campos, who is not running for reelection, in a Sept. 7 message to the Caller-Times.
“We must accomplish this in order to stop any future waste of taxpayers money and time,” she wrote. “The Hillcrest Neighborhood deserves to live in peace. Enough is enough.”
The disagreement
Arguments within the community and on the council have largely remained the same over time: Proponents have endorsed a view that the plant is integral to sustaining the region’s economy and healthy growth, and opponents have raised concerns about the environment, cost and impact to the nearby residential neighborhood.
Much of the dispute has centered on the environment — whether studies have been adequate and which source is reliable in conclusions — with supporters maintaining that research has consistently shown the facility as safe and opponents contending the research is either misleading or falls short on answering important questions.
Bringing the project to fruition, in most recent estimates, rang in at about $979 million.
The vote earlier this month was 5-3 to turn down the contract with Corpus Christi Desal Partners, with Guajardo unable to vote during an unrelated 30-day suspension.
City Council members Gil Hernandez, Carolyn Vaughn, Eric Cantu and Kaylynn Paxson and Campos voted against the contract, and City Council members Everett Roy, Mark Scott and Roland Barrera voted in favor.
Where the council members stand
While believing that the project is dead for the current City Council slate, several council members who have supported the project’s development have expressed optimism that a new council slate voted in by residents for the 2027-2029 term may have a different take on the project.
The permits remain effective, meaning that “the opportunity is there,” said Barrera, who will reach his term limits this year.
In part, the challenge is what he described as “the great ambition of opposing projects,” he said, naming among those the Nueces River Authority’s proposed plant on Harbor Island.
Barrera has suggested the project is “conceptual” and questioned whether there is enough demand to justify it.
Scott has promoted the Inner Harbor project as having the backing of the state and federal governments with permits secured and a $757 million low-interest loan approved by the Texas Water Development Board.
Part of what’s getting lost in the conversation is what ending the project would mean financially, he said.
“What gets embedded in all this is, to walk away from that project requires defaulting on our loan agreement with the state of Texas,” he said. “I think that has enormously bad repercussions.”
Scott, who is seeking reelection, said he believed he had done what he could to support the project, trying “everything I thought I could to encourage council members to vote right, and nothing’s changed really.”
“I’ve stomped my feet, I think I’ve been forceful in my position; it didn’t seem to help,” he said. ”I’ve been super quiet at times, letting other people work through their math; that didn’t seem to help. … I decided months ago that I was simply going to be blatantly frank about my position, and frankly speak to the public and not the council members.”
Some council members who have opposed the project have relayed frustration in the project continuing to return to the council after two votes, nearly exactly one year apart, rejecting major contracts to continue the facility’s design.
The most recent vote on Sept. 1 turning down a contract from the second proposed contractor should mean the project is dead, Cantu told the Caller-Times the day after the decision by the majority of the council.
He has previously aired concerns about the project’s impact on residents’ water bills and asserted that the plant is aimed to serve the needs of heavy industry.
“I don't know how many more times we need to vote on it,” said Cantu, who is running for reelection. “It’s kicking a dead horse. … What do you keep on doing it for?
“It's like one of those crazy ex-girlfriends of yours that doesn't leave you alone.”
It is likely that given the option, “this council will probably vote on getting rid of the permits,” he added.
Vaughn on Sept. 9 similarly relayed interest in ensuring the project would not come back for consideration, although she didn’t elaborate on what route could be pursued to do so.
She has been skeptical of the price and questioned the sufficiency of existing bay studies.
Describing it as a “foolish project,” Vaughn referenced the proposed Harbor Island desalination plant and potential Barney Davis desalination facility as other options.
The issue with Inner Harbor has been “it's very embarrassing for our city,” as well as divisive, Vaughn said.
“As a leader, I would not continue to do something like that with the damage that it's done,” said Vaughn, who is running for reelection.
Hernandez, who is running for mayor, has voiced concerns about the procurement process in the past, as well as costs associated with the Inner Harbor project and its capacity.
He has been a proponent for diversifying the region’s water supply with projects that he has said would be less costly and ultimately, in combination, deliver the same amount of water — one being the Evangeline groundwater project.
Hernandez didn’t take a position on terminating the permits, saying he wasn’t certain whether that would be possible and would need to think further about it.
It’s not about whether he supports desal, he said; he’s seeking “the maximum amount of water that’s affordable.”
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of passion around this particular project, and unfortunately, it got politicized,” Hernandez said. “To me, it’s unfortunate that it got to a political standpoint as opposed to a financial decision.”
Roy, who is not seeking reelection, said he believes it to be a good project and suggested that its most recent iteration — which had proposed to expand the project with discharge piped out to the gulf, as well as additional environmental monitoring — “overcame everybody’s objections.”
Paxson, who is serving as a district representative on the council but running for mayor in the November election, did not provide an interview requested by the Caller-Times for this story.
TCEQ permits
It was unclear as of the morning of Sept. 14 how canceling TCEQ permits may be done.
TCEQ representatives did not immediately have an answer to whether there have been past applicants who chose to scrap their own permits and, if so, what that process looked like.
The Port of Corpus Christi Authority Commission, through a May 2025 resolution, suggested the agency would abandon an approved — and controversial — inshore discharge permit for its Harbor Island desalination site if an offshore discharge permit were approved by TCEQ.
The existing discharge permit gives the green light to direct as much as 96 million gallons of discharge per day into the Inner Harbor ship channel.
The offshore discharge permit sought would allow the flow of as much as 191.2 million gallons of discharge per day, directed out into the gulf, records show.
The new discharge permit is shown in an early agenda as up for a vote by the TCEQ commissioners in a Sept. 23 meeting.
Port representatives declined in a Sept. 13 email to comment on the matter.
City Manager Peter Zanoni wrote in a Sept. 7 message to the Caller-Times that staff would not recommend rescinding the city’s permits.
The permits “took many long years to secure and underwent rigorous state and federal environmental review, including review by the [Environmental Protection Agency] during the Biden administration,” wrote Guajardo in her message to the Caller-Times.
“Voluntarily surrendering them after that level of scrutiny and investment would be fiscally irresponsible and would unnecessarily eliminate a critical water-supply option for Corpus Christi,” she wrote. “Responsible leadership preserves our options, it doesn’t throw them away.”
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Could canceling permits kill Inner Harbor desalination project?
