The donation was intended to cover the cost of applying for a federal grant to build a city-owned treatment plant.
The Corpus Christi City Council voted 5-4 to reject a $60,000 gift intended to cover the cost of applying for a federal grant to help build a city-owned water treatment plant.
The Tuesday night vote confirms the strength of the anti-desalination bloc in the City Council, a month before members are expected to vote on whether to revive plans to build the $978.8 million Inner Harbor desalination plant.
Business and community leaders pledged the money in hopes of moving forward on a desalination plant capable of providing a drought-resistant water supply by removing salt from seawater collected from Corpus Christi Bay.
Tuesday’s vote came three weeks after a bitterly divided City Council declined to apply for the grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which has a program offering up to $120 million to help build desalination plants across the country. Five council members opposed spending money and time applying for a grant for the proposed Inner Harbor desalination plant — a project that has not yet been approved and would take three years to build.
Source: Colleen DeGuzman, The Texas Tribune
Photo Credit: Shoreline Boulevard along the Corpus Christi Bay near downtown Corpus Christi on March 19, 2026. A proposed desalination plant could be built along the bay near the city’s Hillcrest neighborhood. Pete Garcia for The Texas Tribune
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