The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District is leading a critical infrastructure protection effort for the Mary Rhodes Pump Station in Bay City, Texas, authorized under the Continuing Authorities Program (CAP) Section 14. This emergency authority allows the USACE to rapidly protect essential public works facing imminent danger. Currently, the facility is under severe threat from aggressive, flood-caused streambank erosion along the Lower Colorado River.

The pump station is a vital municipal asset, serving as the starting point for a major pipeline network that supplies essential drinking water to the city of Corpus Christi. If the encroaching riverbank erosion is left unchecked, it will eventually collapse into the facility. This would destroy critical intake structures and sedimentation basins, severely disrupting the region's water supply and forcing a massive relocation effort estimated at $42 million.

To prevent this public water crisis, the project focuses on installing least-cost structural bank protection directly adjacent to the pump station. This emergency stabilization will halt the erosion and secure the site, buying critical time for the local non-federal sponsor to implement a permanent, long-term solution without impeding the river's natural flow.