CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Members of the media showed up for a question and answer session on the upcoming desal plant project and a second plant being considered for Corpus Christi.
COO of Corpus Christi Water Drew Molly, Vice President at Freese and Nichols Engineering Charles Wolf and project manager Jason Cocklin helped provide answers to questions that are causing concern with residents. For instance, if desalination would hurt the environment.
Cocklin said that even if the city built two desalination plants along the bay there would be minimal environmental impact.
”Talking about .6 parts per thousand of an impact on the bay, so that all goes back to 17 parts per thousand is the natural range,” Cocklin said.
One question media members brought was whether there were any other cities which had built a similar plant and if so, what environmental impact have they seen?
The leaders said that the city’s project will closely resemble the one in Perth, Australia.
"They’ve got a 36 mgd it’s been operating for almost 20 years," Cocklin said. "It’s the best one to study on desal discharge. They’re using the same discharge technology that we’re planning and they’re going to double their plant capacity because in 20 years they’ve seen no impacts. And the sea life near the facility has reportedly thrived. If you go to their website, they have some really cool pictures where they have the jet diffuser, and some of the most sensitive species. There in Cockburn Sound have created a habitat around the diffuser, seahorses, starfish all sorts of fish."
Molly said that more of these meetings with the media and other groups are planned.
”In fact a couple of us had to run out because they’re meeting with a couple environmental groups today so it’s important that we continue that conversation,” he said.
The city is also hoping people will check out its newly re-designed desal website complete with an artist rendering of what the plant will look like.
Right now the costs of our Inner Harbor desal plant site is right around $750 million.
3NEWS learned the impact on water bills could mean that by 2028 you could be paying up to 9 more dollars on your monthly bill.
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