{"id":384174,"date":"2025-06-22T10:56:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T08:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384174"},"modified":"2025-06-22T10:56:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T08:56:32","slug":"texas-is-going-big-on-desalination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=384174","title":{"rendered":"Texas is going big on desalination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Duggan Flanakin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old saw, \u201cEverything is bigger in Texas,\u201d may soon be coming true once again. The Nueces River Authority has revealed plans for a deepwater desalination plant off Harbor Island near Corpus Christi that would immediately become the nation\u2019s largest \u2013 and with planned expansions by 2070, larger than all but two of the world\u2019s existing desalination plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desalination today provides potable water to billions of people worldwide, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and other Middle Eastern countries leading the way. The world\u2019s largest desalination plant, Ras at Khair in Saudi Arabia, has a capacity of 228 million Imperial gallons per day (MIGD).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2022 report<\/a> stated that of the approximately 17,000 operational desalination facilities globally, only about 300 were in the U.S., led by<\/a> 167 in Florida, 58 in California, and 52 in Texas. The Claude \u201cBud\u201d Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, the largest U.S. desalination plant and currently the world\u2019s ninth largest, supplies up to 50 MIGD to the city of San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven of the next nine largest U.S. desalination plants are in Florida, but ranking fifth is the Kay Bailey Hutchison facility in El Paso, which opened in 2007. The El Paso facility, however, is also the world\u2019s largest inland desalination plant, cleaning up to 27.5 million gallons per day (Mgpd) of brackish water for use at Fort Bliss and in El Paso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Close behind is the H2Oaks facility in San Antonio, which opened in 2017 and currently produces up to 12 Mgpd, with plans to expand capacity to 30 Mgpd by 2040.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Alice, Texas, decided to expand capacity for its own brackish-water desalination plant in 2022, it became the first brackish-water desalination plant in the state to employ a public-private partnership rather than rely on 100% financing from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida-based Seven Seas Water Group convinced Alice officials that by financing the desalination plant with private sector capital and completing the source wells and pipelines with state revolving fund financing, the city could lower its water supply costs while transferring the risks of construction and operations to Seven Seas. After 15 years, the city can assume ownership of the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Byrum, Executive Director of the Nueces River Authority, says the NRA intends to use that same route for construction and operation of its planned 100 Mgpd phase 1 desalination plant (twice the size of the Carlsbad plant), which could become operational within the next few years. The system design includes options to increase capacity to 450 Mgpd by 2070, depending on growth and water needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Byrum points to current drought conditions and to a 2015 NASA prediction<\/a> that the American West is likely to experience severe \u201cmegadroughts\u201d that may be more extreme and prolonged than even the droughts of the 1930s. Lake Corpus Christi and the Choke Canyon Reservoir, which service south-central Texas, are currently at 17.9% of their combined capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bynum\u2019s team has obtained water needs projections from every public and large private water user in a 14-county area in the Region L water planning area in search of water purchase commitments from the proposed desalination facility. The NRA is working with the Port of Corpus Christi, which has applied for permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the intake and water diversion structures for the planned facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NRA is also negotiating a lease with the Port of Corpus Christi for the Harbor Island property, which is east of the city near the Port Aransas ferry dock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as Alice relied on a public-private partnership, the NRA facility would be financed via a public-private partnership in which the Authority would construct and operate the conveyance system to distribute the water while a very experienced desalination company would build and operate the plant, at least until the debt owed to the company was fully repaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Byrum says the waste material would be sent, with negligible environmental impact, into deep water in the Gulf of America, though it is possible that the brine could first be \u201cmined\u201d for valuable minerals. Another benefit from using desalinated water is that, as this \u201cnew water\u201d is processed through wastewater treatment after use, it adds to streamflow in south-central Texas\u2019 parched Frio and Nueces Rivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the NRA facility is being designed to serve the area\u2019s large industrial facilities as well as smaller communities in need of additional potable water, the City of Corpus Christi is awaiting final permits before moving forward with construction of its own 30 Mgpd desalination plant, to be built in the ship channel in the inner harbor. The city\u2019s contractor, Texas-based Kiewit Infrastructure South Co., which has designed and built several desalination plants, anticipates it could complete construction by early 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas is hardly done with desalination projects. The Southmost Regional Water Authority just announced plans<\/a> to double the capacity<\/a> of its Brownsville brackish water desalination plant from 10 Mgpd to 20 Mgpd at a cost of $213 million. Brownsville Mayor John Cowen is seeking funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the project, which is needed to serve area industries and its growing population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, the Laguna Madre Water District announced plans<\/a> to build a 10 Mgpd reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant in Port Isabel using Gulf of America water from the Brownsville Ship Channel. LMWD general manager Carlos Galvan says district voters had approved a $15.6 million bond in 2011 to build the plant, which is being augmented by a $10 million SWIFT loan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SWIFT program, housed within the Texas Water Development Board, has committed nearly $11.5 billion to fund implementation of recommended water management strategy projects within the state\u2019s water plan since 2017. This revolving loan fund is a huge part of the state\u2019s long-term water security strategy as Texas continues to add people and industrial facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared at Iowa Climate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The old saw, \u201cEverything is bigger in Texas,\u201d may soon be coming true once again. The Nueces River Authority has revealed plans for a deepwater desalination plant off Harbor Island near Corpus Christi that would immediately become the nation\u2019s largest \u2013 and with planned expansions by 2070, larger than all but two of the world\u2019s existing desalination plants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":384176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691835949,691835950,691835951,691835948,691835952,691818577],"class_list":["post-384174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-desalination-plants","tag-middle-eastern-countries","tag-million-imperial-gallons-per-day-migd","tag-nueces-river-authority","tag-swift-program","tag-texas","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0Water-tap.jpg?fit=2367%2C1772&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1BWm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":409118,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=409118","url_meta":{"origin":384174,"position":0},"title":"Japan tries out osmotic energy","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/19\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Residents of the Japanese coastal city of Fukuoka are\u00a0pioneering\u00a0the world\u2019s first full-sized osmotic power plant \u2014 which generates electricity by mixing fresh water with saltwater. The plant, which\u00a0opened\u00a0on August 5, generates about 880,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to run a nearby desalination facility and supply about 220 nearby\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fresh water\"","block_context":{"text":"fresh water","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=fresh-water"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPBAvx3zMRQ5bF6Q4TB3YuKorw5q-MZdsP7R67eNvfk4FCQJWDtguDkhRfVLqW2m6iiwE1Y1JPUNZggUy_i6k2L4EoWds8XPMKsRYHCjKlm_JcgoNuAOTIXuk3C29M-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPBAvx3zMRQ5bF6Q4TB3YuKorw5q-MZdsP7R67eNvfk4FCQJWDtguDkhRfVLqW2m6iiwE1Y1JPUNZggUy_i6k2L4EoWds8XPMKsRYHCjKlm_JcgoNuAOTIXuk3C29M-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPBAvx3zMRQ5bF6Q4TB3YuKorw5q-MZdsP7R67eNvfk4FCQJWDtguDkhRfVLqW2m6iiwE1Y1JPUNZggUy_i6k2L4EoWds8XPMKsRYHCjKlm_JcgoNuAOTIXuk3C29M-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPBAvx3zMRQ5bF6Q4TB3YuKorw5q-MZdsP7R67eNvfk4FCQJWDtguDkhRfVLqW2m6iiwE1Y1JPUNZggUy_i6k2L4EoWds8XPMKsRYHCjKlm_JcgoNuAOTIXuk3C29M-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPBAvx3zMRQ5bF6Q4TB3YuKorw5q-MZdsP7R67eNvfk4FCQJWDtguDkhRfVLqW2m6iiwE1Y1JPUNZggUy_i6k2L4EoWds8XPMKsRYHCjKlm_JcgoNuAOTIXuk3C29M-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C621&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":439319,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439319","url_meta":{"origin":384174,"position":1},"title":"Sustainability Professors: Global Warming Might Force Restriction of Agricultural Water Use","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/13\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"These academics frame water scarcity as an inevitable consequence of warming, pushing for restrictions on farming rather than solutions that expand water supply (e.g., desalination, reservoirs, efficient infrastructure, or aquifer management). It contrasts this with practical examples like Israel's advanced drip irrigation and desalination tech, or water management in arid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"agriculture\"","block_context":{"text":"agriculture","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=agriculture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Sustainability-Professors-Global-Warming-Might-Force-Restriction-of-Agricultural-Water-Use.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Sustainability-Professors-Global-Warming-Might-Force-Restriction-of-Agricultural-Water-Use.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Sustainability-Professors-Global-Warming-Might-Force-Restriction-of-Agricultural-Water-Use.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Sustainability-Professors-Global-Warming-Might-Force-Restriction-of-Agricultural-Water-Use.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Sustainability-Professors-Global-Warming-Might-Force-Restriction-of-Agricultural-Water-Use.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":366522,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=366522","url_meta":{"origin":384174,"position":2},"title":"Texas takes giant steps toward nuclear energy dominance","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/17\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp last week\u00a0announced\u00a0that his university has surpassed even the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now has the nation\u2019s largest nuclear engineering research department.","rel":"","context":"In \"Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)\"","block_context":{"text":"Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electric-reliability-council-of-texas-ercot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01693764431291.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01693764431291.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01693764431291.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01693764431291.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/01693764431291.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":283889,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=283889","url_meta":{"origin":384174,"position":3},"title":"Solar power has massive potential to benefit humanity \u2013 with a different focus","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/18\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Solar power could soon become a wonderful thing for humanity... with a lot of snow in the winter..in the dark night? From The BOE REPORT Terry Etam As we slide inexorably into the clutches of Soviet-style cultural narrative control and thought prevention courtesy of \u2018fact-checking\u2019 institutions and their oddly subjective\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"anti-hydrocarbons\"","block_context":{"text":"anti-hydrocarbons","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=anti-hydrocarbons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-energy-facts.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-energy-facts.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-energy-facts.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-energy-facts.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0solar-energy-facts.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":318779,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=318779","url_meta":{"origin":384174,"position":4},"title":"Israel innovating for a water-starved planet","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/18\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"More than 3,400 years ago, Joshua led the Hebrew people across the Jordan River into the land that is now Israel. 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