Texas Gov. Threatens Takeover as Corpus Christi Pushes $1B Water Infrastructure Program

The initiative comes underneath important strain. Metropolis modeling reveals water provide may fall beneath projected demand as early as June 2027, communications director Elisa Olsen informed the Texas Tribune. “We’re not out of water, however our water provide is declining,” she stated.

In the meantime, the groundwater program, central to town’s near-term technique, faces allowing challenges on a number of fronts. New wells in rural Nueces County have encountered remedy points as a result of salinity, and extra drilling in San Patricio County has drawn opposition from residents. Town of Sinton filed a February problem to the Evangeline venture’s permits, arguing the proposed withdrawals may trigger unreasonable declines in countywide water ranges, in accordance with Inside Climate News.

Industrial customers are serving to finance new provide growth by town’s Drought Surcharge Exemption Charge program, which prices taking part services $0.31 per 1,000 gallons every month, producing roughly $6 million yearly.

The urgency displays a decade of business enlargement alongside the bay—significantly in petrochemical and power growth—that has outpaced accessible provide, ICN reported. Reservoir ranges have additionally fallen in the course of the present extended drought, compounding demand pressures.

The latest initiative gained momentum after town council voted in September 2025 to cancel the Internal Harbor Desalination Plant, a 30-MGD facility in progressive design-build growth with Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. The cancellation terminated a $50-million design contract at solely 10% completion, ENR reported in November. The fee trajectory informed the story: early estimates put the plant at $220 million, earlier than post-2019 development inflation and capability expansions drove the determine to $757 million on the 2024 contract award, then to $1.2 billion by July 2025, when the council pulled the plug. Arcadis and GHD have been among the many engineering corporations on the venture, with greater than 150 Kiewit and engineering employees assigned on the time of termination.

Mayor Paulette Guajardo, who had advocated persevering with the venture, stated terminating Kiewit’s contract would flush $50 million “down the bathroom.” Drew Molly, then chief working officer of Corpus Christi Water, had warned metropolis supervisor Peter Zanoni in writing that cancellation would depart town “and not using a totally permitted various.” Molly subsequently resigned to take a place in Houston.

James Dodson, a former water division director, informed ICN town had “dismissed repeated alternatives to develop groundwater import initiatives” whereas sustaining a singular give attention to desalination. Sean Strawbridge, former CEO of the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, cited town’s “lack of expertise, their lack of expertise, their lack of recognizing the dangers,” including: “Time is up.”

The canceled venture carried important state funding. The Houston Chronicle reported $235 million in direct state funding and greater than $700 million in low-interest loans accepted by the Texas Water Growth Board by the State Water Implementation Fund. Talking from an occasion in Manor, Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R), whose appointees sit on that board, stated Tuesday town didn’t comply with by on the dedication. “You already know what they did? They squandered it, after which they modified their plan, after which they have been indecisive about what to do.”

Abbott went additional, issuing a direct ultimatum. “What Corpus Christi leaders should do is decide,” he stated. “We are able to solely give them a bit time extra earlier than the state of Texas has to take over and micromanage that metropolis and run that metropolis to be sure that each resident who goes to the water faucet and turns it on, they’ll be getting water out of their faucet—not due to what native leaders are doing, however due to what the state of Texas will do.” 

He added that the state is “totally dedicated to creating certain that Corpus Christi residents are gonna have the water they should reside their lives like the remainder of the folks within the state of Texas.” ENR reached out to the governor’s workplace for clarification on what a takeover would entail and the authorized authority underneath which it could happen, however didn’t obtain a response.

Texas Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, informed an area radio station that “locals didn’t need to pay for water, and that’s one facet that we’re seeing play out in Corpus that we’re gonna have conversations about across the state,” the Tribune reported.

Town has imposed conservation measures within the interim, banning garden watering and requiring residents to make use of a five-gallon bucket when washing autos.

The Corpus Christi Metropolis Council is predicted to handle the matter at its March 17 assembly.