Seawater desalination for Corpus Christi is $2.75 million nearer

Corpus Christi can relate to the plight of the thirsty mariner in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," surrounded by water he can't drink. The city's capacity to grow has depended on the size of its reliable water supply since it was founded in 1839.

Here we are, in the year 2017, still surrounded by seawater that remains a tantalizing untapped resource. It's time to start tapping it.

The state has made $2.75 million available to Corpus Christi for that purpose, from its State Water Implementation Fund. This is encouraging news.

The money — a loan — is far from the entire answer. A seawater desalination plant could end up costing as much as $200 million according to some estimates. But the $2.75 million is a useful incentive for local officials to find private partners who can turn seawater desalination into more than a longtime tantalizing fantasy.

It's amazing and frustrating that, in 2017, Texas has 46 plants turning brackish groundwater into a product suitable for industrial processes, but still not a single seawater desalination plant on its entire coast. A desalination plant that starts with seawater as its feedstock is a first that needs to occur. And this is the logical place for it to occur — the state's largest seaside city, home of various large industrial plants that need large amounts of water to operate.

State Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, has been pushing this cart for several years. In 2014 he co-chaired the Legislature's statewide Joint Interim Committee to Study Water Desalination. The state has set a goal of producing 116,000 acre-feet of usable water from seawater by 2070.

Those goal years always seem so far away, but there are milestones along the way that can happen a lot sooner. Consider that 2002 was the year a state-sponsored desalination feasibility study was conducted here. Living to see 2070 may be overly ambitious for 63-year-old Hunter, but living to see seawater desalinated here is a reasonable expectation. And he will deserve whatever personal satisfaction he derives from that experience.

Hunter says the $2.75 million will attract investment and generate jobs. We tend to think of water as serving industry. But it, also, is an industry. Its market is large, lucrative and always expanding. Industries are willing to pay a premium for a guaranteed water supply, especially in a drought-prone area.

A desalination operation located here would be a technological and educational resource, a potential field of research, which should be good news for Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. It could expand the menu of faculty positions and degree programs.

Desalination has been envisioned as a player in Corpus Christi's future for a long time. It's high time the timetable accelerated.