CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The City of Corpus Christi is hoping it will soon be able to take the next big step in the process of securing a state permit to build a desalination plant. In fact, in three weeks, City leaders will go before the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality hoping to get the first of two permits needed to being construction on its inner-harbor desal plant off E. Port Ave.
"We have to see what TCEQ does," City Manager Peter Zanoni said. "We sent those permit applications in over two years ago and we're at the behest of a state agency."
City leaders are anxious to get the proposed $200 million desal plant project started.
"I think what we saw is that this drought we just had, which was almost a drought of record, really brought home the fact that we need alternate water sources in our great City of Corpus Christi for residential customers, for commercial customers and industrial customers as well," Zanoni said.
Heavy industry and 500,000 people in the area all depend on our water supply every day.
"We'd like this thing going as quickly as possible," Corpus Christi Councilman John Martinez said. "Living here in Corpus, water is always an issue constantly and even though we've had rains recently we know we're gonna be in this situation again, so the sooner the better."
Councilman Mike Pusley is also ready for that project to start. But, he says the city isn't putting all of its eggs in one basket.
"We are looking at some ground water resources, we're looking at some other desalination locations and a number of other things," Pusley said.
Pusley also says that the city is looking at year-round water conservation measures so that we use our water smartly whether our lakes are full or nearly empty.
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