Residents flood City Council with concerns over inner-harbor desalination, water conservation and industry water use

Dozens of Corpus Christi residents used the council’s public-comment period on Jan. 14 to press the City Council to pause or relocate the proposed inner-harbor desalination plant, demand stronger water-conservation measures, and call for more transparency about industrial water allocations.

Speakers during the nearly three-hour public-comment block said the inner-harbor location risks harming the bay’s ecology by discharging concentrated brine where water circulation is limited. “Dumping 50,000,000 gallons every day into a shallow bay that connects with the gulf only at its ship channel could likely kill dolphins, fish, and other aquatic life,” said Ralph Ricardo, identifying himself as a resident who moved to Corpus Christi in 2020. Fly-fishing guide Brendan Hesselton said modeling shows the inner harbor “takes approximately 1 and a half years to fully exchange” and that concentrated hypersaline brine threatens seagrasses and nursery habitat. Other speakers, including scientific experts quoted by commenters, warned of hypoxia and longer-term ecological damage.

Those opposed tied the…