Hey everyone, just a quick update from last week. Unfortunately, I was unable to submit your signatures to City Council this past Tuesday. I was at City Hall to deliver them in person but had to leave before my name was called. That was a huge bummer! Your signatures will be submitted in person this Tuesday.
In recent news, Monday was the deadline for design / build proposals for the City’s Inner Harbor desalination plant. City staff will be evaluating and scoring the proposals over the next couple of weeks, ending with a recommendation for approval. On October 7th, City Council will approve or deny the recommended firm.
To me, it’s crazy that contracts are being signed before the proper environmental studies have taken place. Without them, we really have no idea whether or not the Inner Harbor can handle this scale of desalination while being safe for the environment.
With that in mind, we are encouraging everyone to write to City Council over the next few weeks to remind them how important it is for the City to do the necessary environmental studies on desal before continuing development on the Inner Harbor project.
Here’s a list of ways to get ahold of your local decision maker:
Public Comments (in person / in writing)
- September 17, 2024 - 11:30 AM (last chance before contracts are approved)
- October 15, 2024 - 11:30 AM
- October 22, 2024 - 11:30 AM
- October 29, 2024 - 11:30 AM
- You can submit your comments in person by signing up before the meeting here.
- You can submit your comments in writing here.
Email / Phone
Paulette M. Guajardo, Mayor
paulette.guajardo@cctexas.com
361-826-3100
1201 Leopard Street
Peter Zanoni, City Manager of Corpus Christi
peterz@cctexas.com
361-826-3220
1201 Leopard St. 78401
Drew Molly, P.E., Chief Operating Officer of CC Water
drewm@cctexas.com
(361) 826-3278
1201 Leopard St. 78401
Michael T. Hunter
Michael.Hunter@cctexas.com
361-826-3415
1201 Leopard St. 78401
Jim Klein
Jim.Klein@cctexas.com
361-825-3145 office
361-445-7304 cell
Mike Pusley
Mike.Pusley@cctexas.com
361-826-3107
Everett Roy
Everett.Roy@cctexas.com
361-826-3107 office
361-677-1335 cell
Sylvia Campos
Sylvia.Campos@cctexas.com
361-826-3145 office
361-687-7259 cell
Roland Barrera
roland@rbi96.com
Roland.Barrera@cctexas.com
361-400-2484
361-688-7111
Dan Suckley
Dan.Suckley@cctexas.com
361-826-3107
361-960-4077 cell
Gil Hernandez
Gil.Hernandez@cctexas.com
361-826-3107
361-779-1179 cell
Sample Letter:
Just in case you need a template to go off of, here’s a short message you can you use to voice your concerns,
Subject: A demand for better science on desalination
Dear Mayor, City Council, and City Leaders,
Do you believe Coastal Bend residents have a right to healthy bays? What about our coastal resources, do you believe they deserve to be protected from unnecessary or potentially illegal degradation? I am writing to you today because I am concerned the City’s Inner Harbor desalination plant will harm the local ecosystem, possibly resulting in millions of dollars of wasted City resources spent on an understudied project.
This is something that could be easily avoided by doing the proper environmental studies, like far field modeling, that are an industry standard for seawater desalination plants in the United States and around the globe. I believe residents like me deserve the best available science when it comes to evaluating the potential harms from desalination. We are paying for it after all. It would cost less than 1% of what the City has already spent on this project and could potentially save the City millions of dollars.
I am requesting you to authorize City staff to procure a far field model study for the Inner Harbor plant, to share the results and modeling files with the public, and to pause any significant spending or development on the project until this happens.
Below are some key points as to why this type of study is essential:
- Experimental Location: The Inner Harbor seawater desalination plant would be the first of its kind to operate in a sheltered bay system like the Corpus Christi Bay.
- Important Habitat: The Corpus Christi Bay System is an estuary of national significance.
- Discredited Analysis: The City’s cumulative impacts analysis for the Inner Harbor’s impact on the Corpus Christi and Nueces Bay have been discredited by two Texas-based scientists (1, 2).
- Dead Zones: Desalination in the Inner Harbor is overwhelmingly likely to produce dead zones in the Inner Harbor and the Corpus Christi Bay.
- TPWD Recommendations: The City has not followed Texas Parks and Wildlife recommendations to evaluate whether there is adequate circulation to prevent toxic accumulations of salinity, or for the potential for depressed oxygen levels due to poorly dispersed brine discharges at a particular location.
- Salinity Increases: The Corpus Christi Bay is already experiencing the effects of rising salinity levels due to a 99% reduction in freshwater inflows.
- Impact on Commercial and Recreational Fishing: The majority of economically important fish and crustaceans rely on moderate salinities within the bay's nurseries for larval development, habitat recruitment, and adequate food availability for maturation.
Respectfully,
(Your name here)
Mega email list for copying and pasting:
paulette.guajardo@cctexas.com, peterz@cctexas.com, drewm@cctexas.com, Michael.Hunter@cctexas.com, Jim.Klein@cctexas.com, Mike.Pusley@cctexas.com, Everett.Roy@cctexas.com, Sylvia.Campos@cctexas.com, Roland.Barrera@cctexas.com, Dan.Suckley@cctexas.com, Gil.Hernandez@cctexas.com, roland@rbi96.com
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For more info on the science on desal in Corpus Christi, be sure to check out these articles from the Chisme Collective:
The Desal Divide Pt. 1: The Science
Alright, that’s it for this update. Y’all take care!
Jason