CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The City of Corpus Christi is planning to move forward with its $500 million water well project.
The city is trying to finalize a deal with property owners in San Patricio County to drill about two dozen water wells and build a reverse osmosis plant on the site.
Mathis City Manager Cedric Davis, spoke at the Tuesday's city council meeting in support of the City's desalination plants. He admitted that he's borrowing the City's water strategy as the blueprint for Mathis' future water needs.
"We know water is critical in that area and in our city we are actually looking for an additional water source just like you guys are doing so we kind of took a small blueprint of you guys and pursue that path," Davis told council.
The first Mathis water well will be drilled next to the city's water plant. Mathis is still working on the design plans which could eventually include up to three wells in operation.
Right now, COO of Corpus Christi Water Drew Molly is working on getting the City's first water well drilled.
"There's a lot of brackish very high-salt content in and around this area and unfortunately the yield is not very significant so you would have to develop a lot and install a lot of wells to get a reasonable amount of water and essentially it's not always been the most viable supply of water that we've looked for but as we all know water is getting more scarce," Molly said.
The City is looking at being able to pull up 12 million gallons of water a day in Phase 1 and another 12 million gallons a day in Phase 2.
City Manager Peter Zanoni told 3NEWS that two deal points still need to be ironed out with the Evangeline group in Sinton. They own the property where the city wants to drill.
That deal is expected to be completed in time for the first council meeting in July.