,ASHEVILLE, N.C. —  If even a minor storm strikes the area and Asheville is forced to shut down its water system treatment operations, 80 percent of the system could fail, resulting in water service lasting less than a day, Clay Chandler told the Asheville-based , pro-business Council of Independent Business Owners on Aug. 1.

Chandler, the public information officer for the Asheville Water Resources Department, told of the vexing dilemma faced by the city and its water customers during an update on the current status and future of the Asheville water system and watershed at an early-morning CIBO breakfast meeting in UNC Asheville’s Sherrill Center.

The presentation occurred nearly a year after Tropical Storm Helene (on Sept. 27) devastated the area and disrupted water service across the Asheville area, leaving the city-ownd system down for 53 days.

Ever since Helene, to keep high sediment levels from overwhelming the filtration process, the city is continuing to rely on temporary pretreatment systems at its North Fork and DeBruhl reservoirs, Chandler said. 

“Our backup plan, like after Helene, would be to send highly chlorinated raw water into the system,” Chandler said. “It would be safe for toilets, fire protection, even showers, but for drinking (water), people would need to boil it.”

About 50 people attended the one-hour program during which a presentation and a question-and-answer session each lasted 30 minutes.

Besides Chandler, participants making the presentation on behalf of the City of Asheville were Bo Hoss, a member of  Asheville City Council; and Ben Woody, the assistant city manager.

CIBO Past President John Carroll, the emcee, opened the meeting with a broad smile, noting that “I’ve got some good news. On Aug. 2, we (in Asheville) will see a high of 76 degrees....” Many in the crowd chuckled at Carroll’s effort to brighten an otherwise worrisome meeting.

Carroll added that, over the years, Asheville has had a reputation for being “cool and green” during the summer, but this summer has been exceptionally hot.

Next, Josh Holmes, CIBO’s vice president, led a public prayer and the pledge of allegiance. And while Asheville Councilwoman Kim Roney — during a recent program at CIBO — neither faced the flag nor recited the pledge of allegiance, the three city officials at the Aug. 1 program stood for the prayer and faced the flag and recited the pledge of allegiance without incident. 

After the pledge, Carroll told the crowd, “Today’s program is going to kick off with Bo Hess. He’s not only a man with ‘the talk,’ he’s got ‘the walk.’ He’s probably been to more CIBO meetings — given his time in office — than any (Asheville) councilman in history... So we appreciate him.” The crowd then applauded Hess.

Hess said, “I’ve come to ask for your help… The fact of the matter is we (the Asheville water system) can’t take even another small storm. A small storm would have a devastating impact on our system. So the city has worked” diligently to fix the problem, which will be expensive... This is an investment we’re wanting to see through....”

(Indeed, Chandler later added that the $6 million monthly cost of operating the temporary systems is unsustainable without federal reimbursement. The city has submitted applications through FEMA’s Public Assistance Program, but nothing has been finalized.

(Further, Chandler later told the CIBO crowd, “We can’t afford it. We’ve made our case to federal and state partners. They’ve been receptive, but it’s a slow process.”)

Meanwhile, Hess said, “We’re going to foot the bill regardless. But we need our federal delegation to help on the back end.”

To that end, Hess, a Democrat, added that, given the overwhelming financial challenges stemming from the water system problems, “We need your (CIBO members’) help with our elected officials — (U.S. Sen.) Thom Tillis, (U.S. Sen.) Ted Budd and (U.S. Rep.) Chuck Edwards” — all of whom are Republicans.

“If you have any ‘back’ channels, please send them (the legislators) an email,” as the city needs a major amount of money to finance the water system improvements.

After a pause, Hess said, “We need this for Asheville to thrive economically,” as, in his estimation, the city, its businesses and residents must have a reliable water system to prosper in the future.

He reiterated that the stakes are not just about water quality, but the city’s long term resilience and economy.

“When I meet with business leaders, they ask: ‘What’s your water infrastructure like? What are your housing costs? Do you have child care?’” Hess said. “We can and must do better in all of those areas. But if we don’t have water, no one is coming here.”

Council recently approved nearly $66 million in water system funding.

“The last thing I have to say is that your voice carries weight — and we need your weight behind us, speaking up and saying we need this for our businesses, for our hospitals and our restaurants,” Hess said, adding, with decided enthusiasm, “Thanks for coming” to this CIBO meeting.

Regarding the update of the city water system that Hess had mentioned, an unidentified man asked the councilman, “What would that look like?”

Going straight to the bottom line, Hess replied, “That would cost a little over $100 million… So what we need is... $100 million!” The crowd chuckled at Hess’ directness in his answer.

Next, in introducing Clay Chandler, the PIO for the city Water Resources Department, Woody, the assistant city manager, said, “You (CIBO members and guests) probably have a love-hate relationship with Clay...

“I just want to say there’s nothing more important than this water system” for Asheville officials, Woody emphasized.

He added, “Clay Chandler does a fantastic job... Bridgette (Herring) …. is our recovery leader….. She’s does a great job leading recovery. She, too, would say her No. 1 priority is our water system...

“Tomorrow (Aug. 2), Bill Hart will be (start as) interim city water resources director,” taking over for David Melton, who has accepted the job as water and wastewater director in Rock Hill, S.C. 

(Melton had worked for the City of Asheville since 2016 and led the water department — with about 160,000 customrs —  through two recent crises.

(The first crisis occurred during the 2022-23 holiday, when cold temperatures triggered a number of system breaks, knocking the Mills River Plant offline and leaving thousands without water for up to 10 days. 

(The second crisis came in the aftermath of Helene (on Sept. 27, 2024), which caused catastrophic damage to the water system, wrecking critical infrastructure and churning up its reservoirs. It left the system without potable water for seven weeks. 

(“Even months later, the department cautioned that the watershed and reservoirs are still extremely vulnerable to any moderate to severe weather events,” the Asheville Citizen Times noted in a July 16 story.) 

Meanwhile, at the CIBO meeting, Woody emphasized that Hart is “taking over one of the tougher jobs in Ashevillle.”

Chandler then began a 10-minute presentation on the city water system, noting that, on the topic of “watershed vulnerability — Asheville is very lucky that we own our own watershed,” given the ravages of Tropical Storm Helene.

“Within the first-year post-Helene, the watershed is expected to experience a 20 times increase in sediment entering the watershed,” Chandler said, adding that, on the bright side, “that number drops to four times (sediment increase) in the second year after Helene.”

Continuing to discuss watershed vulnerability, Chandler said, “The auxiliary spillway was finished in 2020... The auxiliary spillway is much bigger than our primary spillway.

“Without that auxiliary spillway, we would have had complete destruction, we would have lost nearly 80 percent of our drinking water with no quick way to replace it... The road leading to North Fork was pretty much wiped out... Again, our filters are very, very good at handling pristine water.”

Additional infrastructure investment “will allow those filters to handle muddy water,” Chandler said. “So we will have that ability, eventually....”

In “key takeaways” from the city’s CIBO presentation, Chandler listed the following:

• “After Hurricane Helene, the USACE installed temporary pretreatment systems to reduce turbidity at the North Fork and DeBruhl water treatment facilities.

• “The temporary systems provide a critical layer of resilience at North Fork and DeBruhl.

• “Due to impacts of Helene, the watershed and reservoirs are still extremely vulnerable to any moderate to severe weather events.

• “This creates an urgent need for these temporary systems to remain in place until a permanent treatment solution is designed and built.

• “City leadership has throughly and repeatedly communicated this need to our state and federal partners.”

In closing, Chandler said, “Longer term… regarding water resources… we are funding a possibility in West Asheville that would pull from the French Broad River.”

During a Q&A that followed, an unidentified woman asked, “Isn’t now a good time to think about making the water system independent from the City of Asheville?… 

“I look at the MSD (Metropolitan Sewerage District) — and they do a fabulous job at what they do....”

Chandler answered, “That decision is over my head, so I can’t comment on that.”

An unidentified man asked, “A lot of water from the dam did wash out into the Swannanoa… Did we or do we have an early warning system in place? I don’t know if that community has an early warning system when those gates go up... when we have to release all that water?”

In response, Chandler replied, “We don’t have a gate that a human raises. All of that is done automatically. By the time that bucket tipped, that water already was doing catastrophic damage. And sir, those are buckets — not gates. Just the one tipping” though, results “in minimal effect.”

To another question, Chandler said, “Yeah, sure, we have miles and miles of watershed roads and we do control burns on a regular basis…. We’d love to get all that debris off the ground, but we don’t want to destroy the forest in the process... We kind of have to thread the needle on that....”

Another unidentified man queried, “Does the city have a plan on the watershed?” 

Chandler answered, “I’m pretty sure we’ve got a forestry stewardship plan in place with them…. “

After seeing a nod from Woody, Chandler said, “The short answer is ‘yes’ on a plan. And ‘yes,’ we’re constantly evaluating ways to make the (the entire situation) more stable.”

As for a document referred to as the Hazen Report, CIBO member Mark Delk asked, “Is it still the city’s position that the public is not entitled to see it?”

Chandler replied, “It’s my position that I haven’t seen that report. I don’t think anybody in this room has read that report....”

Persisting, Delk queried, “Why isn’t the report being released?”

An unidentified man interjected, “So the report you (Delk) are mentioning is the ‘master plan’ for the (water) system? I’m not aware of why it hasn’t been released.”

At that point, Woody, the assistant city manager, stated, “If it’s legally permissible, we will put it (the plan) out to the public. If we don’t, it’s because our lawyer says we can’t....”

Next, Casey T. Gilbert, representing the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce,  thanked the city administration and staff “for doing the best you could” after the Asheville water system was knocked out when Helene ravaged the area on Sept. 27, 2024. Gilbert is the chamber’s vice president of public policy. 

In turn, Woody thanked the chamber for its ongoing support of the city’s efforts to upgrade its water system.

In response to a question on a bypass line in the Swannanoa area, Chandler said, “It’ll mostly likely be a 36-inch line. As much as possible, it will avoid the floodplain in the Swannanoa area… The design process is underway. It’s a pretty complicated design,” which he estimated will take between three and 10 years to complete.

Chandler added that the project will cost about $66 million.

Carroll, CIBO’s emcee, asked, “Would the (recent) storm (nearby) that dropped 9 to 12 inches — that would have put our system out of business?”

Chandler answered that, indeed, “that amount of rainfall in that short amount of time would” would have knocked out Asheville’s water system. “Again, we’ve communicated that need to our state and federal partners.”

An unidentified man asked, “What about the capacity of the North Fork Reservoir?”

Chandler replied, “Demand is 17 to 20 million gallons per day. North Fork is our workhorse. North Fork handles 70 percent of our demand...”

He added, “If we started today and had the best luck possible weather, it’d be three and a half years” before improvements could be completed.

Further, Chandler said, “‘Plate settlers’ have been a part of our capital improvements plan for several years... The only revenue we receive is when customers pay their (utility) bills, as is the case for most utilities.”

An unidentified woman asserted, “Okay! You’re making the case for me, as to why the water system needs to be independent and regional, rather than a city system...

“I heard the chamber of commerce say you did yeoman’s work — and I appreciate that... But how do we help ourselves not have a problem over and over again?”

Chandler replied, “The short answer is: time and money!”.

He added, “The amount of water that Helene dumped on our watershed — there’s no getting around that… Y’all can help us by emailing our congressmen… It takes money to operate a water system — that’s the cold reality.’

On another question, Chandler said, “So the valve assessment is ongoing. We’re building out. For context, we’ve got about 20,000 valves in our system — so that’s not going to happen quickly....”

Woody then interjected, “A set of recommendations were made after that — and many have been implemented. We learned from that. One of the recommendations was to hire a water PIO.” To that end, he again praised Chandler’s efforts. 

An unidentified man asked, “What other municipalities do you serve?”

Chandler answered, “All of Buncombe County — and a very small sliver of Henderson County,” as well as Black Mountain and other smaller customers... About 160,000 people use the water every day.”

Continuing, Chandler said, “So we have a lot of tanks we have to keep full... and so it’s not going to run perfectly all of the time… If you have discolored or murky water, the best way to get the process started is to call our customer service center...

“Again, we’re very lucky that we own our watershed. We don’t even allow recreation in our watershed. I drink city water every day,” as, Chandler said, do other city officials, “and we feel perfectly comfortable in drinking it.”

In a closing statement following the Q&A, Hess, a Democrat, thanked the city officials present… “and I want to give a ‘shout out’ to (Republican) Chuck Edwards’ team for being here and for their efforts.”

As the crowd clapped and chuckled at Hess’ pragmatic effort to get beyond partisanship, the men from Edwards office gave a thumbs up to Hess and the CIBO crowd.

Carroll, the CIBO emcee, added, “Clay, we really appreciate your effort!”

As the clock struck 8:30 a.m., Carroll asserted, “As we say at CIBO, ‘Let’s go to work!’”