Rooting for a Corpus Christi that puts people and the environment first

Kudos to Council members Carolyn Vaughn, Eric Cantu, Gil Hernandez, Kaylynn Paxson, Sylvia Campos, and Everett Roy for taking seriously the need to understand the impact of the proposed Inner Harbor desalination plant on the environment and public health before proceeding any further on this $1 billion project.

Everyone knows by now that solving Corpus Christi's water crisis has everything to do with big industry using most of the region’s water, and nothing to do with building the Inner Harbor desalination plant, which wouldn't deliver a drop of water for at least three years. And we applaud those council members who have proven ready to stand up to powerful corporate and political interests on behalf of residential water ratepayers.

But we especially recognize those also now pushing for completion of a full far-field environmental study, as well as demanding answers about the urgent issue of potential PFAS contamination in the Inner Harbor – concerns that Mayor Paulette Guajardo and others have largely dismissed throughout the process.

Marine biologists have consistently sounded the alarm about the potential for hypoxia "dead zones” resulting from the desal plant’s daily discharge of 50 million gallons of high-saline brine into the bay. And last summer, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported on the presence of elevated levels of PFAS "forever chemicals" in the Inner Harbor, as determined by an independent analysis.

The possibility of PFAS contamination in the bay is especially alarming as the chemical toxins bioaccumulate, building up in the tissues of fish and other aquatic life, entering the food chain and posing serious risks to human health, including cancer, thyroid disease, immune and reproductive issues, and developmental problems.

A key PFAS concern relates to the proposed plant’s discharge. PFAS removed by reverse osmosis filtration doesn't disappear but instead concentrates in the brine waste stream. At typical seawater desalination recovery rates of around 50%, if the plant were to draw water containing the documented 5.5 parts per trillion PFOS, the brine discharge could contain 11 parts per trillion PFOS – well above EPA drinking water limits, and more than 100 times the EPA's human health criterion for surface water.

The health of the bay and its aquatic life drive a $1.5 billion local tourism industry, which supports more than 24,000 jobs in our community. Threatening that economic engine for any reason would be reckless. To do it for a project that only serves the interests of a handful of big industrial users would suggest heartlessness, brainlessness, corruption, or all three.

But the mayor and at least two council members not only want residents to pay 115% more on their water bills – the total increase if the Inner Harbor project is approved alongside the city’s other investments in other new water sources – to satisfy industry's thirst, they’ve also failed from the beginning to show any serious concern about the potential impact of the project on the bay.

Serious, responsible people know there is an urgent need to conduct thorough, independent testing of the bay to understand exactly what level of environmental and public health risk there may be before proceeding. Residents need to know definitively whether there is PFAS contamination in the bay; and we need to know definitively whether the Inner Harbor plant would create hypoxia in the bay.

Bravo to those council members who agree and are standing alongside all who care about protecting the health of the bay and the health of the community. Ultimately, the decision before the council on June 2 isn’t really about water; it's about our values as a city. We’re rooting for a Corpus Christi that puts people and the environment first.