The pitch is ambitious.
The Harbor Island Seawater Desalination Plant is a multi-billion dollar facility planned near Port Aransas, some 40 miles northwest of Corpus Christi. If built, the plant will convert seawater into fresh drinking water at the rate of some 100 million gallons per day.
At its Oct. 21, 2025, meeting, the Kyle City Council was offered a chance to buy in to the plant some 200 miles away at a cost of $500,000. Several council members agreed Kyle needed to "diversify its water portfolio" in light of worsening drought conditions and increased development in the city.
The council voted unanimously to invest in the plant in exchange for future water supplies.
At the time, Kyle residents worried that the vote was rushed. Now, Kyle Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale is worried the city has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in something they'll never see a return from.
" Even before I was elected … I said, 'I don't think this is a good idea,'" Flores-Cale said. "There's not enough solid information. ... To me, it almost seemed like a Ponzi scheme."
Since being elected, Flores-Cale still lacks faith in the project.
" The idea is so premature," Flores-Cale said.
A 'high-risk situation'
The project is headed by the Nueces River Authority, a small water authority based in Uvalde. The agency does not operate a major drinking water system and has historically focused on water planning, water quality programs, wastewater operations and environmental initiatives.
The Harbor Island desalination project would be the largest infrastructure undertaking in the authority's history.
In recent months, the agency has faced increased scrutiny from other city partners and questions over transparency. At the end of March, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed four new members to the Nueces River Authority board, only a week after the group's chief operating officer, Travis Pruski, resigned. He alleged that the NRA's executive director, John Byrum, presented inaccurate sales information to buyers.
Kyle has already committed $250,000 to the project and is considering whether to spend another $250,000 to maintain its reservation for future water supplies.
" For me, this is a really high-risk situation," Flores-Cale said, "We're talking about being in a city that already has a deficit, and we have to be as careful as we can with our taxpayer dollars."
In a special City Council meeting on May 16, interim City Manager Perwez Moheet outlined a projected city budget deficit in excess of $14 million. Budget negotiations are ongoing, including discussions about whether Kyle will continue to back the desalination project.
"A decision on whether to renew the option will be made as part of the City's FY 2026–27 budget process," Alison Kelly, assistant communications director for Kyle, wrote in an email to KUT News.
Distant water supplies
As of last month, the city of Kyle had $385.3 million in debt — the largest portion of which is for water infrastructure, including an agreement that Kyle entered into with the Alliance Regional Water Authority (ARWA) to pipe water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
Unlike the Harbor Island desalination project, which Kyle joined in 2025, the city has been involved with ARWA since 2007. After nearly two decades of planning, financing and construction, ARWA delivered its first water to Kyle in May 2025 — two years behind schedule.
In a meeting on March 29 of last year, tensions were high about the delays and cost of ARWA water.
"All I have seen is failure after failure after failure in the delivery of the water that was promised to us," Council Member Marc McKinney said. "The tolerance for failure is vastly exceeded."
Pumping from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to Kyle required piping the water between 50 and 80 miles from the source to Kyle. Water from the Harbor Island plant will need to travel almost four times that distance.
It took almost 20 years for ARWA water to start flowing, but has increased the city's capacity by approximately 26%.
The Nueces River Authority says they will be able to start delivering water to Kyle by 2032. The project has yet to break ground.
Water bills climbing
Water rates in Kyle have already increased, partly to fund the pipes and infrastructure needed to receive water from AWRA. Inside city limits, users saw their bills increase 20% and out of city limits users have been paying 77% more for their water since October of last year.
Some Kyle water users are paying more than $200 a month for water. Paying to hold Kyle's spot in line for water from the desalination plant contributed to these rate hikes.
"The costs associated with maintaining Kyle's reservation in the project … are included within the utility system, but the impact on customer rates is minimal because the project remains in the planning stage," wrote Kelly.
Estimates for the ultimate cost of buying into the desalination project are unknown.
Flores-Cale worries that the true cost of the project will be too much for residents to bear.
" At some point it's gonna be cheaper to go to H-E-B and put water bottles on people's doors than it's gonna be for us to bring [water] from this desal plant into our city," she said.
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