A $108 million project aimed at supplying high-volume industrial water users with effluent water is set to begin construction this week in the Coastal Bend, according to state business filings.
Phase 2 of the so-called “Reclaimed Water for Industrial Use Project” was set to get underway on Monday, August 17, according to a new filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). The $108 million project is one of several emergency measures that the city of Corpus Christi — which provides freshwater to more than 500,000 people across seven counties — is pursuing in an effort to diversify its water supply amid prolonged drought. The project aims to make treated effluent, or wastewater, more readily available to the industrial water consumers that make up the lion’s share of water consumption in the Coastal Bend.
Phase 1 of the project, which the Corpus Christi City Council approved last November involved an $11 million design contract awarded to a Miami, Florida-based engineering firm called Ardurra Group Inc. On June 30 of this year, the council unanimously approved an emergency measure to fast-track Phase 2, the construction phase, to be carried out by Houston-based Reytec Construction Services. It’s a project that city leaders described as “a key component of the City’s long term water supply strategy.”…