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City officials outline Mary Rhodes pipeline repairs, groundwater options as near‑term water strategy
Summary
City staff and consultants told the City Council that the Mary Rhodes pipeline currently supplies more than 70% of the city's water, reported findings of a multi-year condition assessment and described near-term groundwater projects intended to "buy time" while longer-term supplies are developed.
City officials and outside engineers briefed the City Council on the Mary Rhodes pipeline on Aug. 11, saying the 101-mile raw‑water conveyance from Lake Texana to the Owen Stevens Water Treatment Plant remains a central supply but has pressure and debris problems that limited throughput until recent upgrades.
The briefing focused on two work streams: immediate operational fixes and alternative water supplies. Drew Molloy, the city's chief water operating officer, said the pipeline "is supplying more than 70% of our water" and described steps staff and consultants have taken to reduce the risk of further failures while increasing available water.
Their technical team and HDR, the engineering consultant, summarized a multi-step condition assessment that began in 2023 and has included tool runs, limited internal inspections, hydraulic modeling and soil/corrosivity studies. HDR project manager Jerry Snead said the assessment found several clusters where modeled pressures exceed the pipeline's design…
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