CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Supply chain issues created by Hurricane Beryl's impact on Houston affected us right here in Corpus Christi when it comes to treating our water supply.
Turns out that there has been statewide delivery issues of chlorine, something needed in the process to treat our drinking water.
The City jumped into action to make sure water operations were not disrupted and switched gears and turn to a nearby plant for help with the delivery of chlorine.
An additional 90-ton rail car delivery was also scheduled to arrive Friday.
Corpus Christi Water COO Drew Molly said the City is working to build an onsite generation system to help limit their dependency on the rail car system.
Before it ends up in your tap, water is treated and purified for consumption at the O.N. Stevens Water Treatment plant in Calallen. Chemicals are a big part of that process.
"We essentially use about two tons of chlorine a day is about our usage," Molly said.
But the city was faced with a challenge the past week thanks to Hurricane Beryl.
"There was some major power outages across Houston 2.5 million people had no power and that impacted some of the manufacturing facilities," he said.
That created a ripple effect that impacted us here at home.
"Complicated by the fact that our chlorine is delivered through a rail car system, so when there are logistical challenges which we did have with the railcar delivery," Molly said.
The city turned to a backup delivery and say residents ultimately won't experience any difference.
"The routine is pretty close to back if not already there, yesterday was an interesting day," he said.
Every month the facility gets a 90-ton rail car that comes in carrying a liquefied chlorine, that is turned into gas.
To limit their dependency on bringing those chemicals from offsite, Molly said the City is already working on a project to create onsite chlorine generation.
The new system would do away with the previous process and is said to be safer.
"So it minimizes the need to depend on sources of chemicals outside of the treatment plant; that's not to say that there aren't some materials we are going to need to create chlorine on site most notably, we are going to need salt," he said.
Molly said the project is in design phase right now and expects it to go to bid for construction later in the fall.