Port Aransas Ends Harbor Island Litigation

PORT ARANSAS, Texas, Sept. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Port Aransas and the Port of Corpus Christi Authority (PCCA) have reached an agreement that resolves all litigation between them.

PCCA proposes to build a desalination plant and a crude-oil export terminal on Harbor Island—just across a narrow shipping channel from Port Aransas' downtown park—capable of serving very large crude carriers (VLCCs), each of which is the length of three football fields. The city and a local environmental group, the Port Aransas Conservancy, have opposed these plans as representing an environmental danger to the local estuary and an economic danger to the town's tourism-based economy.

Now the city has withdrawn its opposition. In exchange for that PCCA has agreed not to terminate the city's lease on its municipal marina; to permit the city to inspect structures built on Harbor Island within city limits; a promise to move the intake to the desalination plant offshore; and money to help train its volunteer fire department to "fight fires and other environmental catastrophes" on Harbor Island.

In response the Port Aransas Conservancy released the following statement:

"The agreement struck between the City of Port Aransas and the Port of Corpus Christi does not clear the way for the construction of a crude oil terminal for VLCCs on Harbor Island. The Port of Corpus Christi has not secured the environmental permits or the private financing necessary to proceed, nor has it justified to the citizens of Nueces County the ecological and economic risks the project entails. The settlement simply puts to rest the current litigation regarding the marina lease and Harbor Island permitting requirements, while relieving the City of Port Aransas of the massive taxpayer-funded legal costs associated with that litigation.

"The Port Aransas Conservancy and other conservation-minded groups will continue to fight to protect our community from the impacts this misguided project will inflict upon our natural resources, public safety, health and economy."

The Port Aransas Conservancy is a 501(c)(4) environmental non-profit whose goal is to foster a balance of conservation and economically sustainable uses for Port Aransas and its surrounding neighborhood and waterways while recognizing that our community and economy is dependent on tourism and fisheries within a healthy barrier island coastal ecosystem. Their web site is www.portaransasconservancy.com.

Media Contact:

Tammy King

(432) 386-3622

[email protected] 

SOURCE Port Aransas Conservancy

http://www.portaransasconservancy.com