Ingleside (KIII News) — The City of Ingleside announced Wednesday they have an agreement with a company that wants to build a desalination plant on Corpus Christi Bay.
Although the site has not yet been picked for the desal plant, it will cost about $800 million to build. However, no taxpayer money will be used.
The City has signed a public-private partnership agreement with Poseidon Water based in Boston who will build the desalination plant and sell the water to the San Patricio County Water District and individual companies. Mayor Ronnie Parker said a stable water supply is what companies consider most important.
"Industry that is moving to our area will be using a large sum of water," Parker said. "Some will use 20 million gallons per daym and some even higher than that."
The plant could be similar to a Poseidon Plant built in Huntington Beach, Ca. City leaders believe the available water supply will only meet current needs until the year 2030, and the new plant would also offer water to the City of Ingleside if needed.
"If this comes to fruition, I think it would be a great thing for our community and the industry to come in, because that's one of the top questions is what I hear from the economic development is, 'How's your water?', and this would be a great source for us to be able to say, 'No problem,'" said Jane Gilmer, president of the Ingleside Chamber of Commerce.
The mayor said if all goes as planned, construction on the desal plant could begin in a year.
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