The Port of Corpus Christi has completed permitting for its long-pursued Harbor Island desalination facility after the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved an offshore discharge permit on September 23, clearing the way for what would be one of the largest seawater desalination projects in the United States.
With the offshore discharge permit in hand, the Port will now withdraw the smaller nearshore discharge permit it had secured back in late 2022, a step required under a resolution its commission approved in May 2025. Combined with earlier approvals, the permitting package now allows construction of a plant capable of producing up to 100 million gallons of potable water a day for industrial or municipal use, drawing seawater from the Gulf through an intake structure roughly 1.3 miles offshore and discharging via diffusers positioned further out to sea.
“The Port of Corpus Christi initiated the process to secure permits for a proposed desalination facility on Harbor Island almost a decade ago,” said Port CEO Kent Britton, framing the project as a response to the region’s need for a drought-resilient water supply well beyond what earlier, smaller proposals contemplated. Commission Chairman Gabe Guerra described the milestone as pivotal for the Coastal Bend’s search for long-term water security, while stressing that the Port’s role is limited to leasing land and managing infrastructure — actual development, construction and operation falls to the Port’s lessee, the Nueces River Authority, working with private partner IDE Technologies.
The project has grown substantially since it was first filed. The Port’s original 2018 permit application envisioned a 50 million gallon-per-day plant to be built and operated by the City of Corpus Christi; the facility now moving forward under the Nueces River Authority’s 31-acre lease is double that size, with a water rights application covering the diversion of up to 350,000 acre-feet of seawater annually.
Harbor Island’s progress stands in contrast to the region’s other desalination effort. The City of Corpus Christi’s own Inner Harbor plant, aimed at supplying municipal and industrial customers directly, has faced repeated setbacks — the City Council rejected a roughly $78.6 million construction contract for a second time earlier this month, shifting more attention toward Harbor Island as the region’s primary path to a drought-proof water source. Texas desalination proposals continue to draw scrutiny elsewhere in the state too, including opposition to a proposed Bayshore plant over brine discharge into Galveston Bay.
Even with permitting complete, construction is not imminent. The Port has said it is not itself a developer, meaning further steps are needed to finalize who builds the plant, and officials have previously indicated that even on an accelerated timeline, a Harbor Island facility remains years away from producing water.
(Source: WorkBoat)