CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When one of our viewers asked about the possibility of bringing in tanker ships full of water for industry to use, the idea sounded promising at first glance. After all, the world's largest tankers can carry over 3 million barrels of liquid, while tanker trucks hold only 1,000 to 11,000 gallons by comparison.
But Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, a Maritime Business Administration professor at Texas A&M University – Galveston, says the economics don't quite add up.
"It sounds logical, but economically it does not make sense, because if it made sense, the world would have a water transportation, maritime shipping system. We don't have it," explained Dr. Rodrigue.
The infrastructure challenges alone would be massive. Any cargo ship would need clean storage tanks, separate pumping systems, and new pipeline installations to move water in large quantities.
In Corpus Christi, the existing port facilities are designed for the export of goods like oil and natural gas, not importing water. The infrastructure would need complete reconfiguration.
"To do this, the city would need to bring water into some kind of a reservoir or the public utility system where the water would technically need to be filtered."
The biggest barrier is cost. The cost for this sort of water tanker operation would be passed on to whoever is buying the water. And the transportation costs alone would be prohibitive.
"The cost of transportation will be four or 5 or 10 times higher than the price of the water," says Dr. Rodrigue.
"We transport oil because the value of that cargo is more significant. With water, but it's a commodity that has very little value, commercially speaking."
While industries could theoretically pay a premium to ship in water, experts generally see it as a short-term solution at best, not a sustainable way to meet the region's growing needs.
This helps explain why this area's long-term strategy has focused on expanding the local water supply through things like desalination, recycled wastewater and groundwater wells.
