CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The City of Corpus Christi has chosen Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. as the firm to design and build the city's first desalination plant, the Inner Harbor Seawater Desalination Treatment Plant Project.
The $700 million plant will be located at the corner of Nueces Bay Boulevard and West Broadway Street and will produce 30 million gallons of water a day.
Kiewit was one of three finalists that the City evaluation committee had to choose from.
Earlier this week, City Manager Peter Zanoni told 3NEWS that leaders have been considering plans to at least double the size of this plant.
Now the City will begin the negotiation process with Kiewit. If they are unable to reach an agreement, the City will move on to the next highest ranking bidder.
Why desal?
The desalination plant is city leader’s attempt to create a drought-proof water supply as Corpus Christi Water’s two main current water sources, the Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi, are experiencing record breaking lows.
As the combined lake level percentages drop past different thresholds, the City initiates different stages of water restrictions as is stated in its Drought Contingency Plan. Right now, Corpus Christi is in Stage 3 water restrictions where residents can only water their yards every other week.
How does desal work?
To put it simply, a desalination plant takes seawater and removes salt and other minerals from it. That water is then treated until it is safe for consumption. In our case, the salt and minerals that are removed will be released back into Corpus Christi Bay. The city will also explore using a much longer pipeline to release the water into the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Corpus Christi Bay
The environmental impact of adding this excess salt back into the bay is not entirely known.
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