MCALLEN, Texas - The Institute for Leadership in Capital Projects (I-LinCP) Rio Grande Valley chapter hosted a network luncheon on Nov. 19, 2025, at Embassy Suites Hotel in McAllen.
The group brought together key regional infrastructure leaders for a panel discussion titled “Foundations for Tomorrow: Infrastructure Demand for the Rio Grande Valley.” The discussion, moderated by KURV Radio host Sergio Sanchez, included panelist Mark Dombroski, assistant general manager and chief operating officer of Brownsville Public Utilities.
Dombroski said Brownsville currently has the capacity to meet its water and power needs, but unprecedented industrial growth will require significant new investments and long-term planning.
“We have enough water needs to the year 2045,” Dombroski said. “While it’s 20 years, that gives us enough time to plan for the future.”
Brownsville operates the region’s only large-scale desalination plant capable of treating up to 10 million gallons per day and is producing roughly seven million gallons daily. The goal is to meet its full 10-million-gallon capacity before expanding the plant to 20 million gallons per day Dombroski said during the discussion.
But the cost of those improvements has surged dramatically. The facility was originally built in 2004 for just under $30 million; current estimates to double its capacity exceed $220 million reflecting a roughly 10% annual increase in construction costs, he said.
To diversify supply at a lower price point, the utility is pursuing indirect potable reuse sending treated wastewater to the water treatment plant for additional purification.
“It’s actually cleaner than river water,” Dombroski noted, saying the strategy could yield up to eight million gallons daily for about $50 million while not drawing from regional water rights.
Meeting future demand, he said, will require “a lot of conservation and good planning.”
Power supply is becoming an even more urgent issue as major industries target the Rio Grande Valley.
“We meet regularly with hydrogen production companies, LNG companies, cold storage, data centers,” Dombroski said. “Any one of these customers demand between 50 and 200 megawatts of power.”
Brownsville’s current peak load is about 320 megawatts, meaning a single new customer could demand up to two-thirds of its existing power supply.
“It’s going to take hundreds of millions of dollars of investment to put the power down here,” he said.
While wind energy helps keep prices low during many hours of the day, outages in wind generation expose vulnerabilities: the Valley remains at the far end of the ERCOT grid and lacks the transmission capacity to reliably import power when needed, he added.
Dombroski said large-capacity 345-kV transmission lines and additional east-west routes are essential for redundancy and reliability.
Dombroski expressed strong confidence in small modular nuclear reactors as a future component of South Texas’ energy portfolio, especially in port-driven industrial areas.
“I think that’s the future,” he said, adding that environmental and reliability benefits make the technology an important investment path.
When asked whether SpaceX founder Elon Musk might generate his own electricity for growing Starship operations, he said there has been no discussion directly — but did not dismiss the idea.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Elon jumps in the business,” he said.
Historically, the region’s slower growth allowed infrastructure to keep pace. But accelerated development over the last decade, from port expansion to aerospace and manufacturing, has shifted the timeline dramatically.
Transmission infrastructure can take 7 to 10 years to build, Dombroski warned.
“We need much larger capacity lines,” he said. “We need to get busy if we’re going to make that happen.”
