On the shoreline of Galveston Bay, neighbors say a major water project was quietly taking shape in their backyard while most of them had no clue. A utilities company, EPCOR, has outlined plans to turn the long-idle P.H. Robinson power-plant site in Texas City into a seawater desalination facility that would produce about 26.5 million gallons of drinking water per day. The plant would pull much larger volumes out of the bay, then send concentrated brine back in, and residents at a March 26 town hall demanded answers about what that could mean for fishing, shellfish and the piers outside their back doors. Local organizers say early permitting moved forward with barely a whisper to the community and are now calling for far more transparency from both EPCOR and state regulators.
Neighbors Pressed Company Reps At A Town Hall
Roughly 100 people packed into a local fire station on March 26, where EPCOR representatives fielded pointed questions on timing, ownership and how the project would be monitored. Organizer Gina Smith pressed the company with a blunt question: "Why didn't we know?" Waterfront resident Paulette Janak warned that any shift in salinity could hit fish and crab catches right off her pier. Those tense exchanges, and EPCOR's answers, were reported by the Houston Chronicle, which noted that EPCOR promised to track nearshore salinity but said it could not sample directly at the outfall point.
What EPCOR Says
In its own description of the proposal, EPCOR says it has filed a discharge-permit application for what it calls the Bayshore facility. The company plans to reuse existing intake and outfall channels at the old P.H. Robinson site and estimates output at about 26.5 million gallons of freshwater per day. EPCOR told residents it intends to blend and dilute the concentrated reverse-osmosis reject before releasing it, run monitoring programs in surrounding waters and line up pilot partnerships with nearby utility districts so local distribution could help keep transmission costs down. The company also highlights that it would be repurposing an industrial site instead of building on previously undisturbed shoreline.
What The Models Show
Technical modeling in the permit package, prepared by researchers at Texas A&M University-Galveston, looks at an intake scenario of roughly 82.8 million gallons per day and a discharge of about 56.3 million gallons per day. The modeling found that mean surface salinity would rise by about 0.12 parts per thousand within roughly 1 kilometer of the outfall, then taper off farther offshore. The report notes that salinity could climb more sharply inside the outfall channel itself, by as much as several parts per thousand, even as the overall intake and discharge scheme could be viewed as a net reduction equal to the plant's freshwater output. Those results and the project's habitat assessment are detailed in the technical files for the proposal from Texas A&M University-Galveston.
Where The Permit Stands
For now, the plan is still in the state's hands. EPCOR submitted its discharge-permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in October 2025, and the agency lists the Bayshore project under application number WQ0005502000. The public docket includes an administrative package, and TCEQ will still have to complete a technical review, draft any permit language and issue public notices before it authorizes any discharge. Application details and the full administrative file are posted on the TCEQ permit pages.
Neighbors' Concerns And A Cautionary Tale
Even with EPCOR's modeling and monitoring pledges, residents are calling for independent sampling and much clearer outreach. They are also pointing south to Corpus Christi as a warning sign. The Houston Chronicle reported that Corpus Christi scrapped a city desalination contract last fall after projected costs ballooned from about $160 million in 2019 to roughly $1.2 billion in 2025, a reversal that has locals around Galveston Bay asking who really ends up paying if numbers change midstream. Nearby commercial fishers and residents are also worried that ecological impacts, sludge disposal and water pricing could fall short of what the community expects, concerns reflected in coverage by local outlet KGTX 7.
Next Steps
EPCOR says it will keep meeting with the community and running pilot tests while TCEQ finishes its technical review. Neighbors, meanwhile, say they will push hard for independent monitoring at the outfall and for public comment opportunities that are widely advertised and easy to access. For anyone trying to keep score, the permit docket and the project's technical files will be the key places to watch for new modeling, pilot data and notice of upcoming public meetings in the months ahead.
