How does Corpus Christi plan to bring the Holly and Rand Morgan water towers online?
It's been three years since the city of Corpus Christi turned on a new 3-million-gallon water storage tank on Holly Road. When it came online, roughly 50 water pipes, mostly on Alameda Street and Port Avenue, burst, sending gallons of water onto streets and yards over two days. The water tower  built in 2017 and 2018 for $5.7 million  has sat offline since, along with a newly-built 750,000-gallon tower on Rand Morgan Road. The city plans to bring both water towers online sometime in 2022. But in a much different way than before. This time, both towers will have a permanent pressure reducing valve and a bypass pump, allowing the water pressure released from the towers to be controlled. And the city plans to "gracefully" increase the pressure over time as aging water lines are replaced, City Manager Peter Zanoni said. "The water towers were built sufficient," he said. "There's no problem with their design. The problem was the distribution system. There wasn't a recognition that it was too frail to handle the pressure of the towers without the reducing valves engaged." The city hired a Dallas-based company, CP&Y, about a year ago to evaluate the city's water tower plan and distribution system. The engineering company developed a plan that recommends adding the pressure control systems to the towers and ramping up the city's spending on it's pipe replacement program. As pipes are replaced, the city will increase water pressure from the towers. "We revised the business plan that we had. And we brought in national experts to help us make sure this one doesn't cause trouble like the last one," Zanoni said. The city has finished the design for the valves and submitted it to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The commission will take three to six months to respond to the city about the changes, said Mike Murphy, water utilities chief operating officer. Then, the city will execute a 260-day construction contract for the additions to the Holly Road and Rand Morgan Road tanks. CP&Y's plan aims to have the city at a maximum water pressure average of 70 pounds per square inch by 2035, said Gabe Ramirez, city assistant director of water quality and treatment. The city's average is now 50 psi, but some areas have 30 psi, which is considered low water pressure. "Water is also going to be moving faster," Ramirez said. "So you help water quality by having less water age. The faster water moves, the less water age and you have more fresh water sooner." Ramping up investment  The city has more than 1,700 miles of underground water pipes and five online elevated storage tanks. Most of the city's water lines are less than 45 years old  about 1,000 miles of them. But more than 20 miles of lines are more than 75 years old. In July 2018, bringing the Holly Road water tower online exposed weaknesses in the city's water line distribution system, Murphy said. Pipes broke because they were too aged to handle the extra water presser. Before 2019, the city spent $2-3 million a year on replacing water lines, Zanoni said. But following CP&Y's recommendation, $20-30 million will be spent on water line replacement annually the next five years, and at least $30 million a year after that. "We didn't invest enough in these back decades. And so now we're having to spend way up here," Zanoni said. The city spent less than $10 million on replacing water pipes over 2019 and 2020, and replaced roughly 60,000 linear feet. This year, the city plans to spend $15 million on replacing another 60,000 linear feet of pipes. The American Rescue Plan is helping the city increase spending on its water system. The city of Corpus Christi is expected to receive $67.6 million from the COVID-19 federal funding. Of it, about $30 million will be spent on waterline replacement over the next two years. Working with TCEQ  In 2012, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality gave the city a deadline of 2021 to bring four new water towers online, including the ones on Holly and Rand Morgan roads. The new tanks would bring the city inline with TCEQ's requirements for water storage. The purpose of the requirement is to ensure the city maintains adequate pressure in its water distribution system. In February, the city requested TCEQ to revise the requirement due to construction delays and issues with the distribution system pressure, said Brian McGovern, TCEQ media relations work lead. TCEQ officials will establish a new deadline for the towers to be brought online and expect to respond to the city by mid-July. Construction is slated to start next year on a third new water tower in Flour Bluff on Starry Road, Ramirez said. It will also have a pressure reducing valve and a bypass pump. A fourth tower is planned to be built on Nueces Bay Boulevard in 2035 when the city has added about 25,000 water customer connections. There are now about 100,000 connections in the city limits. The new deadline would only be for the tanks on Holly, Rand Morgan and Starry roads, Ramirez said. When these water towers are brought online, the current ones on Starry Road, built in 1970, and Rand Morgan Road, built in 1930, roads will be taken offline. The other two old tanks on Gollihar Road and Alameda Street will stay online until the one on Nueces Bay Boulevard is built. Those were both constructed in 1950. City Council input  John Martinez, at-large City Council member, said although residents may be frustrated it's taken so long for the towers to come online, the city is working to do it efficiently. "This is something that the city has been dealing with for decades," Martinez said. "So what we're seeing now is, is trying to catch up and to improve our situation, because of the years where maintenance wasn't done. "(It's) very encouraging that we're going in the right direction to make sure that everything is done, and done correctly." Mike Pusley, also an at-large council member, said "it's unfortunate" the city didn't evaluate the pressure issues and install valves when it built the towers. "It is what it is, and we're now taking steps to resolve that problem," he said. The water and wastewater department is the city's largest operation with a $215 million annual budget. Zanoni said the department will stay on track with Murphy leading it. Murphy took the helm of the department in late May. "What we haven't had is strategy, strategic thinking, term vision and a comprehensive understanding of the system. And so that's what he's going to bring to the table," Zanoni said. "What happened in the past, we're trying to fix it. But that's one that's one big fix is that having the right leadership." Kathryn Cargo follows business openings and developments while reporting on impacts of the city governments decisions.See our subscription options and special offers at Caller.com/subscribe. Related coverage  More:'Changes to chemistry' at lakes, rivers are behind colored water in Corpus Christi's Southside  More:Here's how Corpus Christi plans to spend its $68 million in federal COVID-19 funding  More:Mike Murphy is Corpus Christi's new water utilities chief. Here's why that's important