The Port is seeking two permits so others can build seawater desalination facilities. The City of Corpus Christi is looking at the feasibility of building on those sites. Each facility would provide 10 million gallons of water per day to “supplement” our supply of precious water. 20 million would be a good supply of additional water, right?
Not really. Exxon is not online yet. Exxon will use 20 to 25 million per day. These desal facilities will be built just to break even when Exxon comes on line. The plans don’t supplement anything. And, at a cost of $150 million each, someone is going to pay $300 million to provide Exxon with its water.
Meanwhile, the Port is purchasing 3,000 acres on the outskirts of Aransas Pass and Ingleside to provide land to additional industry. This industrial build-out will most likely be additional chemical facilities requiring the same amount of water to operate as Exxon. So, where is that water going to come from?
Setting aside that Exxon and additional petrochemical plants want to use our cheap natural gas to increase their profits by producing plastics while polluting our air and bays, and that desalination facilities require vast amounts of power and increased scrutiny to avoid the devastating effects of the brine plume, there is something inherently wrong with the continued promotion of industrial build-out when our water resources cannot support them. Are we going to keep building desal facilities for industry just to break even?
There are 500,000 users of our current water supply. Industry uses 40% of that supply. With water levels so low right now, perhaps we can hear Mother Nature singing ♫slow down, you’re building too fast, you got to make the water last♫.