The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority is looking to see if it makes economic sense to build a desalination facility and power plant near Victoria, Texas on the Gulf of Mexico, about 130 miles southwest of Houston.

Because Texas is suffering from draught conditions, the state is looking at the usual strategies: conserve more water, reuse more water, store more water. But there's also another choice: desalination.

The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) www.gbra.org has begun a two-year, $2-million study to assess the economics of building a seawater desalination plant by the Texas Gulf coast. GBRA, which supplies water for the area between Austin and San Antonio, currently sells water from the Canyon Lake reservoir for $125 an acre-foot. However, the Texas Water Development Board estimates water from a desalting plant would cost about $2,000 an acre-foot, an amount that would only supply the water needs of two or three families a year.

According to the Water Desalination Report www.desalination.com, 70 percent of the operating costs of a seawater desalination plant stems from energy usage. GBRA is looking to build a desalination and power plant near Victoria, about 130 miles southwest of Houston. The power plant would likely be fueled by natural gas. Such a desalination plant, using reverse osmosis to remove and filter salt and impurities, would yield some 250 million gallons of fresh water a day, or about 10 percent of the river authority's water supply.

Opponents believe the cost of the proposed plant would run more than $1 billion, and suggest the way to go is groundwater desalination. Groundwater is much less salty, and much less expensive to desalt. Texas already has 46 brackish desalination plants, and plans to add 40 more. It is estimated the Lone Star State has 2.7 billion acre-feet of brackish groundwater, which is a whopping 150 times the water needs of Texans each year.