ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The 36-inch bypass line at North Fork Reservoir has been reconnected. According to the city’s website, T&K Utilities connected the water distribution pipe at about 1 a.m. Thursday.
While that is a major milestone in repairing a water system decimated by flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, that doesn’t mean you’ll have water today or even tomorrow.
“Nothing more than that pipe. That is it. I just want to be clear on that,” Asheville Assistant City Manager Ben Woody said during an update last week. “That is a remarkable feat because if you saw the conditions that existed when they started, to rebuild that and in a matter of a little over a week, that is remarkable and amazing progress.”
A little background information
In September 2004, Tropical Storms Ivan and Frances converged on Western North Carolina, causing widespread flooding that killed 11 people and destroyed more than 125 homes. The storms also caused catastrophic damage to the city’s North Fork Reservoir, which supplies about 80 percent of the system’s water.
To prevent future outages, when crews replaced the destroyed lines at North Fork, they put in a backup 36-inch transmission pipe. The pipe was built to withstand a typical hurricane event, Woody said. But Helene was not a typical storm. Helene followed on the heels of another system. Together, the two dumped about 31 inches of rain on the area.
The main lines at North Fork were destroyed, but the backup line, which was buried about 25 feet deep, was partially salvageable. Crews have been working night and day to get that backup line reconnected because it was an easier fix than repairing the main lines, which sustained catastrophic damage.
What happens next?
Now that there is a distribution line, there needs to be water.
Before the recent flooding, the water in North Fork Reservoir was pristine. But Woody said it looks more like “chocolate milk” now. It can’t be filtered until the sediment settles.
Once the sediment settles, the water can be filtered, pressurized and distributed.
Once the system is pressurized, crews will be able to check other lines for leaks and breaks, which would also have to be repaired.
“I will say today our restoration of water is still measured in weeks not days,” Woody said last Friday.
Once water restoration does begin, it will happen closest to the source of the water and it will spread out from there, Woody said.
All things considered, full system restoration is still potentially weeks away.