CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Planned to take place over a ten-year period, the City Of Corpus Christi wants to build two desal plants and more water projects, boosting our water output by another 130 million gallons of water a day.
The city's water strategy for the next ten years comes as a proposed ammonia plant in Robstown threatens to take 7 million gallons of water a day out of the shared system as we continue to face drought conditions and a rising need among industries.
The 30 million gallon a day desal plant would be built off of W. Broadway Street.
"30 million gallons is what the inner harbor could handle without any type of environmental issue. So, 30 is a good amount, but we know we need more. So, a second one has been planned and we put permit request into TCEQ as well" City manager Peter Zanoni said.
The second desal project that has been talked about being built along the la Quinta channel. The city is looking for it to produce 40 million gallons of water. There's also the possibility that the harbor island site could also be an option.
Mayor Paulette Guajardo told 3NEWS the city is also looking into drilling wells down into an aquifer that runs across south Texas.
"We have the Evangeline who we are working with now and that's groundwater and that's bringing in another 30 million," Guajardo said.
The City's growing water supply plans don't stop there.
"We will improve the Mary Rhodes pipeline that's 25 years old and when we push more water through and make improvements at O.N. Stevens that can generate another 30 million gallons of water," Zanoni said.
That would add 130 million gallons of water to our daily capacity of 160 million gallons. Nearly doubling our available water.
The city is going to be at a hearing on March 28 before the TCEQ where it will find out if it's Inner Harbor draft discharge permit is going to move forward to a contested case or not.
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