The Nueces River Authority, a state water agency, awarded the Harbor Island desalination project on Corpus Christi Bay to IDE Technologies this summer. The project would turn seawater from the Gulf of Mexico into freshwater. It is the largest of five seawater desalination plants planned in Texas, according to the report.
IDE regional sales director Mark Ellison told the authority's board in September that the project is the company's top priority worldwide. The company says it is 60 years old, was once state-owned, and has built more than 400 desalination plants in 40 countries.
Texas has grown quickly and faces repeated droughts, and the state has not yet built a seawater desalination plant. The report says the project would cost consumers a lot and would shift a public water supply to private ownership.