Nueces River Authority urges Hondo council to back Gulf desalination plan

John Byram, executive director of the Nueces River Authority, told the Hondo City Council on a December 2024 agenda that prolonged drought and population growth have left regional reservoirs at very low levels and that the authority is pursuing seawater desalination as a long‑term water supply option.

"The reservoirs are at a combined capacity today of 21% of their full capacity," Byram said, framing desalination as one of the options to address an anticipated long‑term shortfall. He described the proposed plant as sited near Harbor Island and said its planned capacity is 450,000,000 gallons per day. Byram estimated the overall project could cost roughly $2,000,000,000 and said the authority plans a public‑private partnership to shift part of the financing and operations to private partners.

The authority's plan, as Byram described it, would rely on deep‑water intakes and deep‑water brine return lines to reduce nearshore ecological effects: "We're going eight miles into deep water to pull the water out and to put the brine back," he said, adding the approach is intended to keep impacts negligible.

Council members asked technical and fiscal questions. When a councilmember raised concerns about effects on the Edwards Aquifer and local wells, Byram responded that desalinated water would be introduced into the municipal distribution/storage system rather than pumped into aquifers: "It will never hit your wells. It will hit your distribution system... we would propose dumping that into your storage tank at a given pressure, at a given rate so that you would be able to accept it," he said. He also said return flows through local wastewater systems would increase downstream flows in Hondo Creek and help refill downstream reservoirs such as Choke Canyon.

On cost, Byram said rates for customers would be higher but that precise impacts are not yet available: he said the authority expects to have a detailed cost estimate in about six months after work by a project adviser. He also described a P3 approach that would aim to have a private partner provide roughly 35% of capital and that the conveyance system would use state revolving loan funds.

Byram asked the council to pass a non‑monetary resolution of support the authority could carry to the legislature; Mayor and Byram clarified at the meeting that the requested resolution would not commit city funds. The council did not vote on a resolution related to the desalination proposal during this meeting.

Next steps the authority described include refining project costs and contracting plans and pursuing legislative and stakeholder support.