Desal federal grant vote fails; safety still unproven
The Corpus Christi City Council voted 5-4 on Tuesday afternoon to reject an effort to apply for federal grant funding for the proposed industrial Inner Harbor desalination plant, a move that exposed a council still divided over whether the billion-dollar project should move forward at all.
Councilmembers Vaughn, Hernandez, Paxson, Cantu and Campos, the same coalition that has consistently raised concerns about the project's ballooning costs and environmental risks, voted down an item that would have authorized the city to hire a consultant to apply for project funding through the federal Bureau of Reclamation's WaterSMART program.
Their reasoning was straightforward: the council has not approved the project. Applying for construction funding for a project that lacks council authorization, opponents argued, would put the cart before the horse and potentially lock the city into a path it hasn't chosen.
"No one has approved the Inner Harbor project yet,” said Councilmember Carolyn Vaughn, a key swing vote on the City Council. “They’re jumping the gun. It’s going to take around $200,000 just to apply for this grant. This is just strong arm tactics, this is not the way to collaborate.”
The five council members have long raised a range of objections to the Inner Harbor plant. At a preliminary cost of nearly $979 million, the project would be the most expensive infrastructure undertaking in city history, costs that would ultimately fall on residential ratepayers already absorbing increases from other water supply investments. Councilmember Eric Cantu put it plainly: "We're trying to protect the ratepayers."
Environmental concerns remain unresolved as well. The city recently commissioned a far-field modeling study to evaluate what daily discharge of tens of millions of gallons of concentrated brine would do to Corpus Christi Bay, but analysis of the model has yet to demonstrate the project would be safe for the bay's ecosystem.
The grant push was championed by Mayor Paulette Guarjardo and Councilmembers Barrera, Scott, and Roy, with a boost from Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, who made a surprise Zoom appearance at the meeting to lobby for the application. Cloud had previously arranged for the Trump administration to lift a $30 million cap on the program, making the city theoretically eligible for up to $120 million, although Vaughn stressed that the city would be only one of many applicants for the funds.
Cloud’s appearance underscored how much political pressure continues to bear down on Corpus Christi City Hall from Washington, Austin, and City Hall's pro-industry faction, but the council majority appears not to be budging for now. The council vote on whether to proceed at all with the project remains scheduled for September 1.