(The Center Square) – Water filtration capacity continues to increase as turbidity improves daily following infrastructure damage caused by Hurricane Helene at a North Carolina reservoir.
The North Fork Reservoir, north of Black Mountain in eastern Buncombe County, is treating a little over 20 million gallons a day, according to Clay Chandler, a spokesman for the Asheville Water Resources Department.
A third round of in-reservoir treatment to reduce turbidity started on Wednesday, Chandler said. Turbidity of the water is also below 15, down from around 19 reported on Nov. 4.
Rain and flooding from Hurricane Helene damaged a bypass line at the reservoir, which supplies 80% of the city’s water. Residents can access clean drinking water from community distribution sites and aid organizations.
The reservoir needs to reach 25 million gallons a day to keep the water system pressurized in the city of Asheville, which remains under a boil water notice. Once the system reaches that capacity it will still need to be flushed, Chandler said.
“Usual caveats apply – that all depends on the turbidity and the reservoir continuing to fall – so we don’t need things like serious windstorms, heavy, heavy rain, no kind of runoff in the watershed or anything like that,” he said. “So far we’ve had pretty good luck with the weather.”
Chandler said “theoretically” the progress could move up the timeline for flushing the system, but “that’s no guarantee” and would be dependent on bacterial testing.
“We’re very, very encouraged that turbidity is continuing to fall and we think this latest round of in-reservoir treatment that started Wednesday will continue to help that process,” Chandler said.
