CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — When Corpus Christi Water brought a huge new water tower online in 2018, the increased water pressure caused 51 waterlines to break.
Since then, Chief Operating Officer Michael Murphy said they've fixed the breaks, replaced or repaired a quarter million linear feet of lines, and had pressure relief valves added to the tower on Holly and a smaller new one on Rand Morgan.
That's allowed them to just recently start-up and test the Holly tower, and they plan to do the same to the Rand Morgan tower in mid to late July.
Four years later, the very visible landmarks will be able to do the job they were built to do.
“We’re really happy about it," Murphy said. "We’re not thrilled that it’s taken so long to get it back online, but the fact is now we’ve got it back online."
The two new towers were built in response to a 2010 finding from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that Corpus Christi did not have enough elevated storage volume.
Murphy says that's no longer a concern.
“We’ll be able to store three million gallons of water in time of a drought, which is critical to a city in case there’s some type of emergency like a fire or a hurricane — something like that — where water is critical,” he said.
More new water towers are in the works in the coming years — some of which will replace older towers around the city.
One of Murphy's goals is to see the city's water system rating upgraded from superior currently to outstanding — a designation he estimates only one-percent of cities achieves.
But that's not the only goal.
“It’s not just about winning awards," Murphy said. "It’s about providing the best water quality possible we can to the city.”
