This is sincerely wishing that everyone is doing as well as possible in these still trying times.

As most Coastal Bend residents are probably aware by now, there are several seawater desalination plants being proposed in the Coastal Bend area. Two of these are being proposed by the City of Corpus Christi. These two are plainly for the benefit of the petrochemical industry. This original purpose is clearly stated on the City of Corpus Christi web site at https://www.cctexas.com/desal . These desal plants, as designed, are going to have a damaging environmental impact on Corpus Christi Bay. Residents of the city have never been given the chance to vote on whether or not these plants should be built. Here is a 30 second video from Coastal Alliance to Protect Our Environment (CAPE) which gives a succinct overview:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-1VA4qNB9UUIZiGd15RbyY9wTLxj-61w&authuser=jesse%40forwardframemedia.com&usp=drive_fs

The Sierra Club Coastal Bend Group is urging all residents of the Coastal Bend area to state opposition to the two desal plants proposed by the City of Corpus Christi, the La Quinta Channel plant in San Patricio County and the Inner Harbor plant in Nueces County, both of which will discharge brine into Corpus Christi Bay. The City of Corpus Christi has submitted permit applications for these two plants to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Opposition to the granting of the permits can be communicated by submitting public comments, which include a request for a public meeting, on the TCEQ website. If you choose to do this, it would be best to go ahead and do it at your earliest convenience.

The steps below show exactly how to submit a public comment which also includes a request for a public meeting. It is important to include the request for a public meeting. You can of course enter any comment and request for public meeting that you compose, but we are supplying two already composed comments as templates, a long version and a short version. Everyone should feel free to simply copy/paste text from these comments into the TCEQ web page comment box. These two suggested comments are just to make it easier to create your content:

(1) First, have a look at two of the possible comments that you should feel free to use as templates. The first one was submitted by our Acting Chair Jim Klein on behalf of the ExCom. It is located in its entirety on our website at https://www.sierraclub.org/texas/coastal-bend/desalination . The second possible comment is an abridgment of Jim’s comment and is located inline here. You can just copy/paste this entire inline comment if you want to. If you do take just part of the below comment, remember to also include the first sentence which requests the public meeting:

I am requesting a public meeting for this permit. This seawater desalination plant permit should be denied because this facility will increase the salinity of Corpus Christi Bay. This increased salinity will have a negative impact on plant and animal life in this body of water. Corpus Christi Bay is a closed bay system--water remains in the bay for 1.6 years before exchanging with Gulf water. This will allow the salty brine discharge to accumulate in CC Bay to a much higher degree than is the case with desal plants that discharge into open water. Additionally, the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi has produced a study indicating that any increase in salinity will increase the likelihood and frequency of red tide algal blooms in CC Bay. Recent red tide events have caused large fish kills and have emitted toxins into the air that were sufficiently noxious to drive people away from the bay front. For these reasons, I believe that this permit should be denied.

(2) Go to the public comments web page on the TCEQ website at https://www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/. Type in the Permit Number in the provided input box and click the Next button. The permit number for the La Quinta Channel desal plant is WQ0005290000. The permit number for the Inner Harbor desal plant is WQ0005289000.

(3) Fill in all of the required fields on the next web page, including privacy policy, email address, name, mailing address and phone number. Lastly, fill in the Comments box with your comment and then click the Submit to TCEQ button. You should very shortly receive an email confirmation that your submission was received.

(4) You can check a permit status by going to https://www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eCID/. There are two permit search methods available. You should use the top one, i.e., Search One. It defaults to looking for Open Items. Once you enter the TCEQ ID Number in the large Step Two section (at the top right), scroll down to the optional Step Three section and click the box next to Include all correspondence from the public on this Item: so that you can see all submitted comments and requests for public hearings.

If you have any comments or questions, you may contact us at coastalbendsierraclub@gmail.com.

Thanks very much,
Coastal Bend Group ExCom