Council hears detailed Inner Harbor desalination update; pilot, modeling and demo plan advance as communications campaign draws criticism

Corpus Christi city officials gave a wide‑ranging briefing on the Inner Harbor Water Treatment Campus — the city’s seawater desalination project — laying out near‑term pilots, environmental modeling and next steps while also fielding council criticism over an active communications campaign and its costs.

The project status and schedule

Brett Benhazel, director of the program management office overseeing the desalination program, told the council the project is proceeding in phases. Phase 1a — advanced design and demonstration planning — is near completion and scheduled for June 1. Phase 1b (further design and long‑lead procurement) has begun; construction of the full plant is planned to start in early 2026 with construction running through 2028 and a transition to city operation following a one‑year Kiewit operation and maintenance contract.

Benhazel said the project team will present a more detailed capital cost model for council review in July after the team completes its review of the basis‑of‑design report and an independent cost estimate.

Pilot demonstration and modeling

The project’s demonstration plant will be built on Port property and operate long enough to satisfy TCEQ’s demonstration plan requirement — a continuous 30‑day steady‑state run — before decommissioning and submission of a feasibility report to TCEQ. The demonstration plant will send its product streams to the Broadway Wastewater Treatment Plant, Benhazel said.

GHD, as a Kiewit subcontractor, will perform near‑ and far‑field hydrodynamic modeling of the Inner Harbor ship channel to support diffuser design and to meet conditions of the city’s TCEQ permit, Benhazel said. He emphasized the modeling domain is the Inner Harbor ship channel (roughly 7.2 miles west of the proposed discharge and about 1.5 miles east) and that the modeling is intended to demonstrate compliance with permit requirements for the discharge; it will not model broader bays and estuaries beyond inputs to the channel. Benhazel said GHD will submit model results in May with a review period and an anticipated council presentation in July.

Technical details in outline

- Intake and treatment flow: planned process train includes dissolved air flotation, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, with separated brine and product streams that will be recombined and discharged to the Broadway wastewater plant during the demonstration. - Demonstration timing: construction of the pilot equipment and discharge line expected in June; plant operation and optimization in July–August; the 30‑day continuous TCEQ demonstration run anticipated in September–October. - Environmental modeling: near‑field diffuser design based on GHD modeling; key modeled parameters include dissolved oxygen and stratification related to hypoxia potential. - Long‑lead procurement: early orders placed for transformers and other items; AquaTech identified as technology supplier for submittal development.

Alternative water supplies and wells

Drew Molly, chief operating officer, briefed council on parallel alternative water projects. He said the city has installed multiple Nueces River groundwater wells; well No. 1 has a permanent generator and produced about 1,100 gallons per minute (about 1.5 million gallons per day) during recent testing. Well No. 2 will receive its permanent pump in approximately two weeks and has test pumping that reached 2 million gallons per day; additional wells are at various stages of drilling and testing.

Molly said the city submitted a temporary bed‑and‑banks permit application to TCEQ for the Nueces River groundwater project (a temporary permit can allow use for up to three years if granted), and a letter to the governor’s office was delivered to seek support for expedited review. He also summarized other options under evaluation — Evangeline, EV Ranch, reclaimed water and potential partnership discussions with South Texas Water Authority — and said the city engaged Garver as a consultant on a two‑week notice‑to‑proceed to help develop business cases on multiple alternatives with the goal of presenting initial business‑case material on June 10.

Communications plan and council response

Alisa Olson, director of communications, presented three related public education campaigns: a local campaign promoting the Inner Harbor project (Google, Facebook/Instagram, radio), a statewide campaign placed with The Texas Tribune during the legislative session (website ads, sponsored content and newsletter placements), and a local “four‑tier” water‑security campaign that explains seawater desalination, pipeline expansion, lakes/reservoirs and groundwater wells. Olson said the Tribune contract cost $30,000; the “what fills your cup” local campaign cost $49,995; and the four‑tier campaign was approximately $43,000 — an aggregate of roughly $123,000 of paid outreach through the end of the fiscal year.

Several council members expressed concern about the timing and framing of the advertising. Councilwoman Kalyn Paxton said she was comfortable with outreach but objected to campaign language that could be read as implying the project alone would “solve a regional water crisis”; she and others urged clearer messaging that positions the plant as one part of a multi‑source strategy. Councilwoman Sylvia Campos described some of the advertising as political “propaganda” and said the council should not be spending heavily on promotion for a project whose final costs remain unknown. Council members asked for the clearer inclusion of conservation messaging and alternatives in the public materials; Olson said she would modify messaging and noted a separate “four‑tier” campaign specifically explains the suite of water options.

Next steps and schedule

Benhazel said the project team expects a draft cost model in June and a cost model review for council in July. A design workshop for staff, Kiewit and Friese & Nichols is scheduled; a June 17 presentation on progressive design‑build and guaranteed maximum price development is planned. The team will continue twice‑monthly briefings to council on critical path items.

Ending

City leaders presented technical progress on pilot operations, diffuser modeling and long‑lead procurement while also confronting the political and communications challenges of explaining a high‑profile water project under active public debate. Council members requested clearer multi‑source messaging, conservation elements in outreach and early delivery of the project cost model before major procurement commitments.