'Run the race': Here's who will lead the new Coastal Bend Air Quality Partnership

A new nonprofit organization aimed at improving the Coastal Bend's air quality announced who will make up its 10-member board of directors, which includes elected officials, industry executives and community and academic leaders.

Stakeholders in Nueces and San Patricio counties celebrated the milestone during a Thursday event at the Solomon P. Ortiz International Center, marking the next step toward the nonprofit enacting an action plan with the goal of keeping the region's airshed in attainment — meaning it meets national air quality standards.

The nonprofit, the Coastal Bend Air Quality Partnership, aims to improve air quality by promoting voluntary improvement measures and emissions-reducing activities, proposing programs for monitoring and improving air quality and advancing discussion on those topics.

The nonprofit represents the "next evolution" of the Corpus Christi Air Group, an ad-hoc group established in 1995 after the region's airshed was on the verge of nonattainment. Due to the group's work, Corpus Christi has never failed to meet federal or state air quality standards.

"This has been a long time coming," said Sharon Bailey Murphy, the nonprofit's first executive director, who was hired in May. She has worked in environmental affairs for the city of Corpus Christi since 2009. "It can't be said enough that this is 27 years of voluntary collaboration from our community that went above and beyond compliance."

Gretchen Arnold led the Corpus Christi Air Group and helped with establishing the new nonprofit. Murphy, likening the continuance of Arnold's and others' work to a relay race, said it was on the new board of directors to continue their work.

"They ran their race well," Murphy told the audience before gifting each board member with baby-blue batons marked with the Coastal Bend Air Quality Partnership logo. "Now, they're passing the baton to us."

The Nueces and San Patricio county judges and mayors of Corpus Christi and Portland appointed one board member each. The Port of Corpus Christi Authority appointed one, and industry and business leaders appointed three. In addition, one community leader and one non-voting member with a background in academia were selected.

Here's who makes up the board.

• Sarah Garza will serve as the nonprofit's first president. She works as the Port of Corpus Christi's director of environmental planning and compliance. She is the port authority's representative.

• Darcy Schroeder will serve as the nonprofit's vice president and is employed by Valero Energy Corp. as a public affairs manager. She is the Coastal Bend Industry Association's representative.

• Barbara Canales will serve as treasurer. Elected in 2018, she is the current Nueces County judge. She is Nueces County's representative.

• John Weber will serve as the nonprofit's secretary. He is the community representative.

• Zach Albrecht will serve as a board member. Appointed in 2021 and elected in 2022, Albrecht is a Portland City Council member and works at Celanese. He is Portland's representative.

• Paulette Guajardo will serve as a board member. A former councilwoman and elected to the city's top elected position in 2020, she is the mayor of the city of Corpus Christi. She is Corpus Christi's representative.

• Sonia Lopez will serve as a board member. Elected in 2020, she represents Precinct 1 on the San Patricio Commissioners Court. She is San Patricio County's representative.

• Brady Fontenot will serve as a board member. He works at Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, a joint venture of ExxonMobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. near Gregory. He is a business and industry representative.

• Travis Chaney will serve as a board member. He works at Bay. Ltd. He is a business and industry representative.

• Joseph David Felix will serve as a non-voting board member. He is an assistant professor of environmental chemistry at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

The Coastal Bend Air Quality Partnership is funded for three years of operation through contributions from local cities, counties, industry associations and other entities.

The nonprofit will unviel a website sometime in August. Next, the board will be tasked with establishing an action plan. A draft of the action plan is projected to be before the board in December 2024.

The nonprofit's structure was established by a transition workgroup that included industry leaders, the planning director of the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Planning Organization and, notably, a member of the Coastal Alliance for Protection of Our Environment — an environmentalist group.

More:The Port of Corpus Christi has a new environmental policy. Here's what it means.

Portland resident Errol Summerlin, a founding member of CAPE, said the collaboration with industry leaders was engaging and fruitful in creating the nonprofit, which he said is a "great start" in lowering emissions.

Summerlin hopes the nonprofit delivers on its stated mission to lower emissions more than the minimum required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, he said he hopes it "sends a message" to local industry to install more monitoring equipment.

"There is a heavy industry presence (on the board), but that is because they have a lot at stake if we reach nonattainment," Summerlin told the Caller-Times. "It is a great start, and I will keep myself aware of what they are doing. I certainly want them to push for more."

A 2020 study by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi's South Texas Economic Development Center states that continued population and economic growth — particularly the development of industrial manufacturing plants in the Port of Corpus Christi district and across San Patricio County — is expected to degrade local air quality further.

The airshed reaching a nonattainment status, the study says, could have a significant impact on the local economy. In a hypothetical scenario wherein the area is at nonattainment, the study found the annual average costs to the Corpus Christi metro area would be $586 million to $1.7 billion.

Murphy said collaboration between all stakeholders is critical to the success of the nonprofit and the region in terms of attainment.

"It's the public, industry, school district, the (Metropolitan Planning Organization) and all of us as individuals. It's not them versus us — we have to work together," Murphy told the Caller-Times. "Then, we can maintain what we've already accomplished and then go beyond."

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Here's who will lead the new Coastal Bend Air Quality Partnership