The Nueces River Authority (NRA) presented an outline of the "New Water for South Texas" project, a plan to construct a large seawater reverse-osmosis desalination facility offshore of Harbour Island and to convey treated water via a new conveyance pipeline to inland customers.

"We want to develop that through a public private partnership," John Byram, executive director of the Nueces River Authority, said as he described the project. Byram told council the initial permit request is for up to 100 MGD and that the site and port lease allow later expansion to several hundred MGD; he said the project would be owned by the river authority and delivered under a long-term take-or-pay water‑price contract with a private partner who would design, build, finance, operate and maintain the plant.

Byram reviewed the permitting steps (offshore intake/discharge permits, U.S. Army Corps 404 permit, and state GLO/TCEQ approvals), the port lease for roughly 30 acres, offshore intake/discharge alignments and the preliminary conveyance route to Aransas Pass and beyond. He said firm customers for portions of the capacity already exist and described factors that will affect cost — final conveyance routing, right‑of‑way acquisition, and potential state participation loans for oversized pipeline capacity. Byram noted that desalination worldwide typically runs between $10 and $15 per thousand gallons, and staff presented caps and staged delivery dates in the 2029–2032 range for initial deliveries to the coastal area with later conveyance buildout inland.

Council members asked about the project’s pricing, scalability, permitting timeline and the potential to qualify for state participation loans and other grant funding; Byram said the project team would pursue state participation loans and work to minimize conveyance cost by exploring rights-of-way and cooperation with other regional partners. Ending: NRA will continue permitting and procurement steps; councilmembers requested follow-up briefings and additional details about financing, timelines and environmental review.