CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Here at KRIS 6 news, it is our goal to keep you up to date with everything going on in our community. Now we take that commitment even further with our new ongoing series: Ask The Manager.
We had our first of an ongoing series of conversations with Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni.
PETER ZANONI:
Yes thank you, Jeff it's a pleasure to be here and I look forward to talking to the community through your program.
JEFF DUBROF:
Absolutely. We are going to be doing this once a month a different topic each time and this time we are talking on the topic of desalination. I'm going to dive right in this is a topic that is a hot topic in Corpus Christi, for those who don't know what is desalination and why is it such an extensive topic in our community?
PETER ZANONI:
The issue, Jeff is that the community basically needs more water. Right in the near future but about 2022 so we modeled to see how much water do we need and do we have enough coming in from our sources where we get the water from today and as more industry has come to the Coastal Bend region, the city and San Patricio County as well the need to have more water and have a drought-proof source of water has been a paramount conversation.
JEFF DUBROF:
Where does the city, if approved, plan on building that plant, and what is the projected cost look like for building something like that?
PETER ZANONI:
Anywhere from in between 175 million to a little over 200 million is the price estimates we are using today. The facility is not designed at this point so it is hard to have actual cost.
JEFF DUBROF:
You know just as well as about anyone Corpus Christi is a town that enjoys it's outdoors, it's wildlife, it's fishing... How environmentally safe is the process of desalination?
PETER ZANONI:
Our best interest is making sure that we are protecting our environment so we that's our number one goal and we at Freeze and Nickels there is a whole team of scientists, coastal engineers and experts, environmental engineers and experts that are studying this issue. There's a state oversight with the TCEQ, Texas commission on environmental quality and they are looking at modeling, our modeling their own modeling they're not going to let us do a desal plant if there is an adverse effect to the environment.
JEFF DUBROF:
How much of a vote is needed for approval, will a vote be need for approval and who will be voting on approval for the desalination process?
PETER ZANONI:
The city council ultimately is the body that will approve the desalinization plant. We provide water not only to Corpus Christi but to six other counties and so having a six county, seven county wide vote would be I don't know if that is the best policy decision so the city council with our form of government they represent the people in fact there is an election coming up in November and we're a representative democracy here at the city and so the council has the big policy and decision to make so they will vote on the desalinization plant.
JEFF DUBROF:
Mr. Zanoni, I appreciate you taking the time, we appreciate it and we look forward to doing this once a month and we will see you the next time we have you on for ask the manager.
PETER ZANONI:
Great thank you Jeff I appreciate your time as well.
For more information on desalinization, the city will be hosting a virtual town hall tonight at 6.
