Repair crews will play Whac-A-Mole as first water flows from Asheville reservoir

The City of Asheville will start pressurizing parts of its water system served by the North Fork Reservoir this weekend, the next step in trying to rebuild the network of distribution lines ripped apart by flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene.

The process likely will reveal new breaks and leaks in the towns of Swannanoa and Black Mountain, which sustained some of the worst damage from flooding in the Swannanoa River.

It won’t immediately provide those areas with drinkable water.

Clay Chandler, spokesman for Asheville’s water resources department, said Friday that repair crews are on standby and will be “playing Whac-A-Mole” with the leaks, some of which are likely to shoot water straight into the air, he said. Chandler and Ben Woody, Asheville’s assistant city manager, explained the plan Friday during Buncombe County’s regular Helene recovery briefing, live-streamed through the county’s Facebook page .

This week, crews finished repairs to a 36-inch bypass line that will allow water to start flowing from the reservoir located north of Black Mountain. The North Fork Reservoir is the largest of the city’s three impoundments and serves some 70% of its customers, including those in Black Mountain and Swannanoa .

But the water that will start flowing into the system this weekend won’t be of the pristine quality to which Asheville customers are accustomed.

Why the North Fork Reservoir is so murky

Gov. Roy Cooper visited the North Fork Reservoir Thursday with state and local officials and heard that normally, water in the lake is so clear it’s possible to see fish swimming 10 feet down.

However, Helene “flipped” the reservoir, bringing silt up from the bottom and stirring it into the water like it was run through a blender.

The particulates became electrically charged and have continued to bounce off each other, keeping the water murky and gritty and limiting visibility to just a few inches. Cooler temperatures this week have slowed the process even more, the city says.

The water can’t be processed by the nearby treatment plant because the particulates are so large they would quickly jam up the plant’s filtration.

Getting Asheville’s water supply running again

Friday, Woody described for the public the process that will be used to try to accelerate the process of settling the particulates back to the bottom of the reservoir. Crews will curtain off sections of the reservoir with underwater semi-circular partitions and treat each section with aluminum sulfate, a coagulant that’s expected to clump the clay particles together and cause them to fall to the bottom.

Officials won’t make a guess about how long that process might take.

Meanwhile, though, the city will start drawing water directly from the reservoir – suspended silt and all – into the repaired 36-inch line and push it into the smaller feeder lines. That will allow them to find the breaks and leaks they haven’t already located, all of which must be repaired before additional communities can be added back on.

Over the coming days or weeks, crews will continue to pressurize lines, find and fix leaks, and keep moving west until the system is repaired.

What to do if you see water flowing through your pipes

Woody said that customers in Black Mountain and Swannanoa might notice water flowing through their pipes this weekend, and told them it will contain lots of sediment. They should shut off intake lines to appliances, including water heaters, to prevent damage from silt buildup, he said. Power should be shut off to water heaters as well, he said, until the system is restored.

In Swannanoa, water that flows into the system through this process can be used if boiled, Woody said. But in Black Mountain, because of additional issues there, the water should not be used for drinking even if boiled.