The Port of Corpus Christi (POCC) exports over 2.4 million barrels of oil per day, which is 60% of US crude oil exports. The ship channel across shallow (depth 8 feet) Corpus Christi Bay has recently been widened to 530 feet and deepened to 54 feet from the POCC to the Gulf to support increased ship traffic. This channel is too shallow for fully loaded Very Large Crude Carrier (LVCC) vessels carrying 2 million barrels of oil. The POCC owns land on Harbor Island in Port Aransas (2 miles from the Gulf) and has proposed two projects for this land. One would be a VLCC port and would deepen the ship channel to 78 feet so these ships can be fully loaded. There are concerns about the cost of dredging and maintaining a deep channel 12 miles into the Gulf, and environmental concerns about possible oil spills affecting sensitive habitats and endangered species. South Texas has been experiencing a severe drought, and freshwater reserves in reservoirs are at 10% capacity. There has been a proposal to build a seawater desalination plant at this same Harbor Island location. This facility would produce 100 million gallons of freshwater a day and discharge a similar volume of brine (2x salinity) into the ship channel, eventuall expanding to 500 million gallons per day. This channel is also the major route for estuarine dependent fish and shellfish species spawned in the Gulf to recruit back to the estuary. Larvae of these estuarine dependent pecies use environmental salinity signals to help these small, weakly swimming larvae to recognize when longshore currents carry them toward passes through the barrier islands. They then use changes in salinity to alter their depth in the channel to allow flood tides to carry them into the estuary.  The potential impacts and costs of these proposed infrastructure changes will be discussed in terms of estimated construction and mainenance costs, and environmental impacts.