River authority’s budget woes are another blow to water-needy Corpus Christi

This article is co-published with KRIS 6 News and ProPublica as part of an initiative to report on state and federal efforts to restrict local control.

The Corpus Christi region, in the midst of an ongoing water crisis, has experienced another setback: Design work has halted on a pipeline that’s supposed to deliver water to communities across the state because the tiny river authority that promised to develop the project hasn’t offered a renewed contract, KRIS-6 has learned.

Two years ago, the Nueces River Authority, which has historically been responsible for managing river resources and facilitating regional water projects, pledged to develop a $6 billion to $7 billion seawater desalination plant and underground pipeline to carry the water to customers. Communities started paying fees up to $2.7 million to book future desalinated water. The agency collected $4.1 million in fees.

Construction on the project is still nowhere close to starting, the pipeline delay being the latest blow. The engineering firm hired to develop the pipeline, Lockwood, Andrews & Newnan, ran through its contract and is waiting on a new work order that has not come, company leaders confirmed.

Now, the NRA’s funding for the desalination project is months from running out.

“Conceivably, we’re out of money at the end of August in desal,” board member Dan Suckley said at the agency’s June 25 meeting.

NRA CFO Robin Murray did not dispute him. “If we don’t receive these additional payments — yes,” she confirmed.

NRA Executive Director John Byrum has pointed to a possible financial lifeline: federal money he has told public audiences is coming from President Donald Trump, though no commitment has been made and the record of what was actually requested remains unclear.

What happens to the NRA and its seawater desalination project could have huge consequences for the Corpus Christi region, which has been facing an unprecedented water supply crisis. This spring, the city of Corpus Christi announced that a persistent drought could trigger a Level 1 Water Emergency, in which the city reaches 180 days from the point at which total water supply can no longer meet total water demand.

Bryan Hofmann/KRIS 6 News

Although recent rains have refilled reservoirs, prompting Corpus Christi leaders to say the emergency has been delayed until September 2027, regional water planners project the area will need roughly double its current supply within a decade, a gap the NRA’s Harbor Island desalination project is meant to help address. But the NRA had never before taken on such a project. For years, the Port of Corpus Christi Authority had been laying the groundwork for a desalination facility on Harbor Island, securing permits, but it never intended to build or own the plant. In 2024, the river authority sent an unsolicited offer to the port, offering to find private companies to finance, design and operate it.

The NRA project is separate from the city’s plans for its own owned and operated desalination plant on Inner Harbor. The city’s project carries a nearly $979 million price tag and has had a turbulent path. A Corpus Christi City Council meeting that stretched past 2 a.m. in early June ended without a decision on whether to continue to design the project, with the vote on a $78.6 million design contract tabled until Sept. 1.

The NRA project will draw water from the Gulf of Mexico and pipe it up to 200 miles inland, serving cities, water districts, and industries across South and Central Texas. The agency has called it a generational investment. Eighteen municipalities and water supply corporations have paid non-refundable fees to reserve their place in line.

How the NRA pays its bills – and why that matters

Unlike most local government agencies in Texas, the NRA cannot levy a property tax and has no guaranteed funding from the state or federal government. The agency earns money the way a small business does — by charging for services. It operates water systems under contract for small cities across the state and collects fees for regional water planning work.

Five of these bread and butter contracts ended, and grants dried up. A utilities contract with McMullen County that had been providing steady monthly income ended because, Byrum said, the NRA didn’t have the expertise or manpower to handle the demands of the contract.

“We didn’t do a very good job,” Byrum told the board last week. “I’m just gonna be honest with you.”

Other NRA contracts disappeared, like one for more than $100,000 to do watershed education. The Texas Department of Agriculture froze a colonia planning and needs assessment grant at a loss of just over $150,000. The agency was also spending far more than it was taking in, according to emails and budget documents KRIS 6 news obtained and Murray’s own statements to the board last week.

So the NRA turned to the one fund that still had money: fees that cities and water districts had paid for the promise