The East Asheville Booster Pump Station must be reinstated immediately.  

 In 1993, the EABPS was built. When water pressure fell due to high demands, the EABPS served to provide the back-up pressure to deliver water to the South Asheville and West Asheville areas. 

These pumps are made to last 60-plus years, but in 2010 it was “retired,” for no apparent reason. Even the City’s Water Master Plan engineers in 2019 assumed that the EABPS was still working.

 Then this past December, the Mills River Water Treatment Planet went offline because of frozen lines. When that happens, the EABPS should have kicked in. Breaks in pipes do not cause water outages; in fact, had the EABPS been in operation, it would have prevented the 38,000 people from going without water for eight to 10 days.  

 The EABPS needs to be brought back online.  When water pressure falls below normal levels, the EABPS kicks in. Without it, if water pressures were to fall and there were a fire downtown, there might not be sufficient water pressure to deliver water to put out the fire. 

Without the EABPS, the North Fork Water Treatment Plant is not really a 31 MGD facility. The 6 MGD filter plant expansion at North Fork in 1996 was predicated with the EABPS being available at high demands. Without it, North Fork has only 25 MGD of production, which will go into the system.

 Our city needs a professional civil engineer involved in the oversight of the Asheville water system. The last water engineer was Tom Frederick, PE, in 2001.  

David Melton is the director of water resources, but he is not a water engineer or a specialist in water systems. Buncombe County has 1,700 miles of pipes with 20,000 valves.

 Please help the (Asheville) City Council to realize the need to put EABPS back into service as soon as possible and to hire a water engineer to oversee our water system. 

(City Council can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

 Let’s  restore this crucially important core component of the Asheville water system.

‘Oasis’ that is Asheville eroding, but nonprofit offers a way forward 

I have known Asheville as a Southern progressive oasis my whole life. Ashevillians are, by and large, a fascinating mix of Southern hospitality with progressive insight. 

However, as our city continues to grow and political/social agendas have shifted, this oasis is losing its security, as the rights of women, people of color and queer folks are under attack.

North Carolina abortion bans were officially set from 20 to 12 weeks. We’ve heard years of promises from Asheville’s city council for reparations without any results delivered. 

And just last month, the Yancey County Board of Commissioners considered seizing control of a public library over nothing more than a very small and innocuous Pride display! What is happening in our backyard? We must organize and act to ensure the preservation of our ideals.

In response to these growing threats, Beacon (a local nonprofit organization) is providing the necessary tools and resources for Western North Carolina to effectively congregate. 

Beacon provides a social network with features like shared action lists, end-to-end encryption, and clear communication channels that activists here are looking for. 

Beacon provides private, secure and organized channels to defend abortion access and to make sure that people of color and queer folks remain uncensored, supported and celebrated in their existence and histories. 

Beacon is already in conversation with many local leaders and groups about implementing their new platform this month! Join Beacon at www.thebeaconnetwork.org/ to begin supporting action and restoring our oasis together.