CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After Tropical Storm Alberto, the neighborhood surrounding Wade Street in Calallen was in danger of a water line break. A retaining wall had started to crumble and exposed a water line.
“We noticed that the erosion in this situation was a lot worse than the erosion we experienced with Tropical Storm Alberto,” Kaylee Reed said, officer Manager for River Acres Water Supply.
After River Acres Water Supply had one of their water lines exposed from that erosion, Nueces county employees provided a quick fix covering it and supporting it with crushed limestone.
Then the heavy rains from last week rolled in.
“Last rain that we had, that rain took away that temporary fix that we had. So, now we’re in the process of getting a permanent fix,” Nueces County Commissioner Robert Hernandez said.
Nueces County Engineer and Public Works Director Juan A. Pimentel said the county is in the process of addressing the problem. They just had to wait for the inordinate amount of rain to pass.
“The approach on the culvert, we need to go back and re-stabilize that and like I said, we’re going to put a retaining wall, concrete retaining wall. So, that way when water comes in rushing from both sides, at least it will have some type of way we divert the water,” he said.
Reed is appreciative how responsive the county has been. She said a water line break gets costly for everyone.
"Depending on how large it is, we would lose pressure within the system. If we fall below a minimum PSI that we have to maintain, then we have to go into a full boil water notice for the entire system. So, at that point you're affecting about 2,500 people," Reed said.
Reed also thought drainage could be an issue. However, Pimentel didn't think so.He said this is an area that has many parts of the watershed that run through it.
“We do get a lot of water runoff that comes from the ditches. We get some from the east side, the west side and also from the south side. And, when all that comes together in one location it does create some type of erosion around the structure itself.”
Pimentel said the county has already put out a request for proposal to find a contractor for the project.
He expects that to take a few weeks. He hopes the county and contractor can have an agreement in place soon and begin construction in the next month or two.
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