The Corpus Christi desalination plant vote failed again
The Corpus Christi desalination plant vote failed for a second year in a row on September 1 2026, when the city council voted 5 to 3 to reject a 78,600,000 dollar contract to continue designing the Inner Harbor seawater desalination plant. Desalination is the process of removing salt from seawater to make it drinkable. The contract was with a new development partner, Corpus Christi Desal Partners, brought in after the council rejected the design of a different contractor for the same plant in September 2025, estimated then at 1,200,000,000 dollars. Mayor Paulette Guajardo did not vote, absent under a 30 day suspension amid an impeachment trial. The vote covered only continued design work on a plant already fully permitted and about 60% designed, and it neither canceled those permits nor authorized construction.
The absent member is Mayor Paulette Guajardo, under a 30 day suspension, according to source 1.
Show the numbers
| Voted against | 5 |
| Voted for | 3 |
| Absent | 1 |
Council member Gil Hernandez, who voted against the contract, says he has opposed this project since 2020.
I just don't like this particular project, and I've been consistent with this since 2020.
Gil Hernandez, city council member. Source 1.
Council member Sylvia Campos, who also voted no, pointed to the repeated rejections.
I don't want people behind me, behind us, coming back again and doing this.
Sylvia Campos, city council member. Source 2.
Council member Everett Roy, 1 of the 3 who voted yes, argued the city could not afford to wait for water.
I'm not going to sit there and I'm not going to turn water down.
Everett Roy, city council member. Source 1.
What the state has actually paid for
Texas has funded pieces of this project since 2017, and reading the state own announcements directly, not just news coverage of the vote, gives an exact paper trail. The Texas Water Development Board approved 2,750,000 dollars in 2017 for planning only, plant site selection, source water testing and economic modeling. It approved a further 222,475,000 dollars in 2020 to design and build the plant, then planned as 2 plants, Inner Harbor and a second plant on the La Quinta Channel, together producing 70,000,000 gallons a day. Those 2 figures add to 225,225,000 dollars, a MAOWCE total, the only exact, dated state figure this article states. The Texas Tribune reports the state has since agreed to a further loan of more than half a billion dollars, of which only 10,000,000 dollars has actually been paid out. None of that money has produced an operating plant.
The 2017 and 2020 figures are exact, from the state own announcements, sources 3 and 4. The 3rd figure is what the Texas Tribune reports has actually been paid out of a later, larger commitment described only as more than half a billion dollars, source 1.
Show the numbers
| Approved 2017, planning only | 2,750,000 |
| Approved 2020, design and construction | 222,475,000 |
| Disbursed since, of a further sum | 10,000,000 |
A plant redesigned more than once
The design the council just rejected is not the design Texas funded in 2020, which covered 2 plants producing 70,000,000 gallons a day combined. The Corpus Christi Desal Partners design covers 1 plant, 30,000,000 gallons a day, more than a third of the city demand, with room to expand to 80,000,000. The same Inner Harbor site has carried 3 different price tags under 3 different contractors, 236,693,000 dollars in the state 2022 water plan, 1,200,000,000 dollars for the design rejected in 2025, and 978,800,000 dollars for the design rejected in 2026. The plant has never had 1 stable price.
The 2020 figure describes a 2 plant plan, Inner Harbor and La Quinta Channel, source 4. The 2026 figures describe the single Inner Harbor plant Corpus Christi Desal Partners proposed and the council rejected continuing to design, source 1.
Show the numbers
| 2020 design, 2 plants combined | 70 |
| 2026 design, initial phase | 30 |
| 2026 design, potential expansion | 80 |
The drought behind the vote, and the city hedge
A 5 year drought nearly pushed Corpus Christi to emergency status the prior spring, which would have required 25% cuts to water use. Rain since then has raised reservoir levels from 15% to 48% of capacity over 6 months, but city projections still show a water emergency by fall 2028 without a new supply. The city has also reserved about 50,000,000 gallons a day from a competing project, the Nueces River Authority Harbor Island Seawater Desalination Plant, for 2,700,000 dollars, a hedge the city page for the project confirms. All 9 city council seats are up for election in November 2026, and the vote that just failed is already a campaign issue.