The water system in Asheville is sprawling and most water lines need to be completely rebuilt after the damage from Hurricane Helene, according to city staff who spoke with BPR this morning.
Large sections of the pipe washed down the river in some areas and debris from the floods has made water harder to treat.
The road to the treatment plant at Bee Tree road is “totally gone” and is actively being rebuilt. The North Fork plant which serves 75% of city is also inaccessible.
The Mills River plant is producing 3.5 million gallons currently – more than 1 million gallons than it usually does. City staff are cautiously optimistic they can increase that to 5 million by the end of the day. With that expansion, those in south Asheville should keep the running water they have. The city may also expand service in south Asheville but said it was “not a promise…but a wish and a hope.”
The water is still not potable and needs to be boiled.
As of Thursday morning, city leaders had not given a specific estimate of when running water will be widely available in Asheville, other than saying in recent days that municipal water service will take “weeks” to bring back.