Heading into election season, leaders in Corpus Christi face a puzzling question: what to do with $235 million from the state of Texas for a seawater desalination plant that was never built. 

This month, officials in the Gulf Coast city declined to pursue the flagship water supply project for the second time in a year over cost concerns. Now Corpus Christi may have to return the money, including $50 million it already spent, plus $72 million in interest.

“That’s going to be a painful experience if the State of Texas calls our notes due,” said City Council member Mark Scott at the Sept. 1 meeting before the vote that rejected the desalination project. “I think we are dangerously close.”

Returning the money would “seriously damage our relationship with state leadership, negatively impact any future loan applications and continue to put downward pressure on our credit ratings,” Scott said in a follow-up statement. 

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