Cost of Inner Harbor desal facility balloons to at least $1.2 billion

The City of Corpus Christi has announced that its proposed Inner Harbor seawater desalination plant now comes with a major sticker shock: nearly $1.2 billion in construction costs, plus a projected $32 million per year in operating expenses.

The newly-released figures would make the City’s proposed facility the most expensive large-scale seawater treatment plant in the world on a cost-per-unit basis – and contractors say the final total construction cost could still increase to nearly $1.8 billion.

The cost of the Inner Harbor plant was originally estimated at $541 million and later increased to $758 million before the new figures were released this week. The dramatic cost increase has been covered by the Corpus Christi Caller Times, KRIS and KIII.

“Given that we now know that the Inner Harbor plant could cost almost $1.8 billion to build, the real question is clear: will a Council majority now tell the City Manager not to build the world’s most expensive seawater desalination facility, or will they continue to let him drive us over that cliff?” asked Chloe Torres of Texas Campaign for the Environment. “Even setting aside the critical unanswered questions about PFAS in the Inner Harbor and the environmental impact of the plant’s discharge on the Corpus Christi Bay, on a purely financial basis, this plant is only becoming more and more catastrophic.”