Desal and Disorder: What They’re Not Telling You About Corpus Christi’

When we dropped the Desal and Disorder VLOG, the response was immediate —
messages from fishermen, teachers, refinery workers, and even a few city employees.
Everyone wanted to know one thing:
What’s really happening behind the curtain?

So, let’s dig deeper.
This isn’t about finger-pointing — it’s about truth.
And around here, truth’s been buried under more red tape and PR money than a fish kill in July.

1. The “Crisis” Narrative

Corpus Christi’s been under water restrictions for months, but not because people are wasting water.
City records show industrial customers use roughly 80% of all treated water, leaving only 20% for the public — residential, commercial, and everything else combined.
(Source: City of Corpus Christi Water Department – 2023 Water Usage Report)

So when you see a “Stage 3 Drought Restriction” sign, it’s not really about you rinsing your boat or watering your garden — it’s about industry’s endless appetite.

Refineries like Citgo, Valero, and Flint Hills, plus the massive Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (a joint venture of ExxonMobil and SABIC), draw tens of millions of gallons every single day. And unlike residents, their rates are deeply discounted — industrial contracts are locked in at bulk prices negotiated years ago, often below cost of treatment and delivery.
(Source: Texas Tribune, 2024)

It’s not a water shortage.
It’s a priority problem.

2. The Desal Distraction

Desalination has become Corpus Christi’s golden goose — or maybe just its golden mirage.

The first big push came with the Inner Harbor project, where the city poured over $120 million into studies, consultants, and engineering. When the final cost estimate cracked $1.2 billion, the project was quietly shelved.

Then came Baffin Bay, a political gamble that hit a wall of community opposition and environmental lawsuits.
Now, we’re back to the same storyline: revive Inner Harbor, buy Harbor Island rights for $2.7 million, and acquire a half-built private plant for $50 million.

All told, taxpayers have shelled out hundreds of millions — with no desal plant producing a single gallon of water.
(Source: Caller-Times Investigative Report, 2024)

Every time the city gets close, the target moves.
And the only people who seem to make money are the consultants, contractors, and PR firms attached to the process.

If it feels like déjà vu, that’s because it is.
Desal’s not a plan — it’s a perpetual industry in itself.

3. The PR Machine

Watch enough local TV and you’ll start noticing the slogans:

“Water Security for the Future.”
“Innovation for the Coastal Bend.”
“Jobs, Growth, Opportunity.”

Those ads aren’t coming from the city — they’re coming from the same corporate players lobbying for desalination permits.

Groups like Coastal Bend Coalition, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, and My Town, Our Future are industry-backed campaigns built to look grassroots. Their goal? To shape public perception and neutralize opposition by flooding (pun intended) the market with upbeat messaging.
(Source: Texas Campaign Finance Database, 2024)

Behind the feel-good videos are PR budgets north of $5 million a year — the kind of money no local conservation group can match.

It’s not about awareness.
It’s about manufacturing consent.

4. The Environmental Cost Nobody Talks About

Desal plants don’t just make freshwater — they also produce brine, a hypersaline waste stream that’s dumped back into the bays.
That discharge can increase salinity levels, suffocate oyster beds, and damage fish nurseries along the coast.

A 2024 study from the Harte Research Institute warned that long-term desal effluent could alter water chemistry in shallow estuaries like Redfish Bay and Oso Bay, creating localized “dead zones.”
(Source: Harte Research Institute, 2024 Report on Desal Brine Impact)

Fishermen already see the writing on the wall —
you can’t catch what can’t live there.

5. The Political Web

Here’s where things get uglier.
Emails obtained by the Texas Tribune show state officials allegedly threatened local leaders with withholding infrastructure grants unless desal permits advanced.
Add to that the campaign contributions from engineering and construction firms standing to profit off contracts, and you’ve got a system that looks less like public service and more like pay-to-play.

And when a small community near Portland filed a complaint over discriminatory site selection, state regulators brushed it off, claiming “environmental justice concerns were unsubstantiated.”
(Source: Texas Tribune / Public Citizen, 2024)

Call it what it is: politics with a pipeline.

6. Real Solutions (That Don’t Involve a Billion-Dollar Straw)

If Corpus Christi truly wants to secure its water future, there are options that don’t come with a $1B price tag and a brine dump.

Industrial Accountability: Adjust water rates so large users actually pay the real cost.
Leak Repair: The city loses an estimated 20–25% of its water through infrastructure leaks every year.
Water Reuse: San Antonio already recycles more water annually than our entire proposed desal output.
Transparency: Public line-item reporting for every “water project” expenditure — no more hidden consultant fees.

The solutions exist. What’s missing is the political courage to use them.

7. The Bottom Line

The fight for Corpus Christi’s water isn’t about desal.
It’s about control — who has it, who profits from it, and who pays for it.

Industry wants water security without cost.
The city wants growth without accountability.
And taxpayers — the people who actually live here — are left holding the hose.

But this coast isn’t theirs to gamble.
It belongs to us — the ones who work here, fish here, and raise families here.
The ones who care about the bay not because it’s profitable, but because it’s home.

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Desal and Disorder: What They’re Not Telling You About Corpus Christi’s Water Crisis