From Staff Reports 

The City of Asheville’s water system will experience the restoration of potable (drinkable) water by mid-December, City Councilwoman Maggie Ullman announced in a video that she posted to social media on Nov. 1.

“Worst-case scenario, if the (turbidity) curtains don’t work, we will have a temporary filtration system that will be up and running by mid-December,” Ullman said in an Instagram reel.

“That is still a long ways away, but we have an end date. Up until now, we’ve all been walking around going: ‘Is this going to be next March?’ We didn’t know. But now we know mid-December ... we will have drinking water.”

Meanwhile, the Asheville Citizen Times reported on Nov. 1 that “the filtration system is what she (Ullman) described as a ‘Plan B’ to the city’s ongoing work to reduce turbidity in the Burnett Reservoir, which feeds its largest water treatment plant near Black Mountain.

“If that plan were to ‘not really ever land,’ the city is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bring in a temporary water filtration system, Ullman said, which would require a 35-day build — a clock that started Oct. 30, according to Water Resources Department spokesperson Clay Chandler — and then an additional two weeks to flush the system.”

In its story, the ACT quoted Chandler as telling the newspaper on Nov. 1 that “mid-December is certainly realistic... We’re working with the Army Corps of Engineers on an alternative filtration system, full details of which I’ll provide at the media briefing” on Nov. 4.

Chandler presented a brief overview of the project on Nov. 1 during a morning meeting of small business-owners, including Go Local Asheville, along with other area organizations. The meeting was live-streamed.

The ACT story noted that Chandler said at the meeting that the Army Corps system is a “redundancy” — and that water restoration could progress more rapidly if the ongoing in-lake treatment speeds up.

“We’re going to do it, regardless,” the ACT quoted Chandler as saying. “If the lake cleared up tomorrow, we would still proceed with the Army Corps option... By mid-December, we will have a drinking water solution in place. Does that mean that every single part of the city will be out from under the boil water notice? We don’t know that for sure, right now.”

Further, the ACT reported, “Until now, the city has resisted providing a timeline for potable water restoration. Chandler told the Citizen Times previously that, without certainty, it would be ‘irresponsible.’”