A second leak may have been discovered in the Mary Rhodes Pipeline — a key piece of the city’s water supply.
Corpus Christi Water officials wrote in an Oct. 1 news release that a potential new leak had been found while performing maintenance.
The roughly 100-mile pipeline traces a course between Lake Texana and Corpus Christi, delivering water purchased under contract from the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority, as well as water from the Lower Colorado River owned by rights.
“The MRP was offline for two days while Lavaca-Navidad River Authority (LNRA) installed redundant pumps at Lake Texana Pump Station and CCW contractors added two pipeline connections,”
the news release states. “During the pipeline restart, CCW identified a potential leak near the O.N. Stevens Water Treatment Plant across the Nueces River.”
The pipeline was recently down for nearly a week after a 17-foot section failed. It went back into service Sept. 26 after repairs.
The Mary Rhodes Pipeline, in recent history, has delivered about 72 million gallons of water per day to Corpus Christi’s treatment plant.
It is planned that crews will begin excavation of the site overnight to evaluate the structure and how best to address it, according to the news release. That will mean the pipeline will again, for now, be offline.
In the meantime, the region will rely on water sourced from its main supplies, Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir, as well as millions of gallons of groundwater per day from three well fields in Nueces County.
Kirsten Crow covers city government and water news. Have a story idea? Contact her at kirsten.crow@caller.com.
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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Another leak found in key Corpus Christi water pipeline
