WOODFIN, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Concerned members of the community gathered at Riverside Rhapsody Beer Company last night to discuss the environmental impact PVC pipes from IPEX Inc. have had on the French Broad River after Tropical Storm Helene.
The public meeting was held at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 12 at Riverside Rhapsody, 995 Riverside Dr., located directly across the street from IPEX.
MountainTrue and Woodfin leaders address river clean-up
The gathering was one in a series organized by MountainTrue, a nonprofit environmental preservation, conservation and restoration organization. Between 25-30 concerned members of the public attended, in addition to MountainTrue leaders, clean-up crews and Woodfin officials.
The meeting was held to address the massive amount of IPEX pipe that was washed downriver after Helene. IPEX keeps a significant amount of product next to the French Broad, nearly all of which was swept into the water during the storm.
While IPEX helped to clear some of the pipe from the water in the months immediately following Helene, MountainTrue said they have since abandoned the job.
“So far, all they’ve done is reload their floodplain storage with more pipes, waiting for the river to take it in the next flood. We want to put pressure on IPEX to do better. There’s lots of things they can do better to either anchor their pipe or move it to another location when a storm is in the forecast,” said French Broad Riverkeeper Anna Alsobrook.
What MountainTrue is doing to help
Alsobrook that MountainTrue has hired “102 heroes” that have been working to remove pipe from the river every day. It is a big undertaking. The pipe was swept miles downstream, in some cases accumulating in piles more than 20 feet tall. The work is tedious and technical, often requiring teams to traverse whitewater rapids to remove pipes by hand.
“What we found, with working with a lot of heavy equipment operators and seeing what happened with the folks that came through from [the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers], is this pipe actually just explodes when you grab with an excavator arm,” explained Allan Smith, a debris crew leader. “So, people have been the answer.”
Smith said that MountainTrue has been able to recycle some of the intact piping, giving some to area farmers to use for irrigation. However, some is entirely unusable, and that is without looking at the environmental impact of pipes that have burst.
“If this stuff is left untreated or unremoved, it will continue to break down into smaller, smaller pieces,” said Jon Stamper, river clean-up operations director at MountainTrue.
“It’s our goal to get this stuff out of there as quickly as we can, and that’s why it’s really important that we continue this mission now. We don’t want to wait for another five years for that stuff to continue to degrade.”
IPEX has been hard to contact
Clean Waters Director Hartwell Carson said that despite repeated invitations to IPEX to attend community meetings, the company has declined to send a representative.
“We’ve repeatedly invited them to talk to us dozens of times,” Carson told the crowd.
“Yeah, in a public forum like this, I mean, it’d be nice to see them,” a member of the public replied. “People change their attitude when it’s a face-to-face thing.”
Christina Tyler, another member of the public in attendance at the meeting, shared an email she had received from IPEX Corporate Communications after reaching out to the corporation about river clean-up.
“From the start, IPEX has acted swiftly and decisively in our recovery efforts, deploying resources immediately to address the situation. We remain committed to securing and collecting any pipe and materials that washed off-property. Our teams have been diligently surveying the affected areas of the river to prioritize clean-up efforts and ensure thorough and responsible removal. Over the last several months, we have concentrated on key areas of the river including roadsides, accessible riverbanks and along the rail line, working with specialized vendors to effectively access and clean these areas,” IPEX replied.
“As we enter the next phase of recovery, we are focused on addressing the challenges presented by the difficult terrain and the mix of other debris in the area.
“This effort is ongoing, and restoring the surrounding community remains a top priority for us. If you have located pipe or have pipe that requires removal, please contact us at asheville.pipe.recovery@ipexamerica.com.”
“There’s a couple other quotes they put out saying they’re working with local groups on clean-up efforts, which is not true as far as I know,” Carson said.
What Woodfin leaders are doing to help
MountainTrue and Asheville residents are not the only ones who have been in contact with IPEX about issue. Woodfin Town Manager Shannon Tuch said that conversations with the corporation have generated two areas of focus for the local government.
“I think there’s two responsibilities. One is cleaning up the pipe that’s gotten into the river,” Tuch said. “The other is to try to keep it from happening again. And that’s been the town’s focus. We’re trying to work with different grantors to see if we can identify an appropriate grant that we can go after, or collectively with IPEX go after, because we have access to grant money that IPEX doesn’t necessarily have, and vice versa. So, if we work together, we might be able to find something, to study the problem and see what kind of solutions exist.”
828newsNOW has reached out to IPEX for comment.
For more information about MountainTrue river clean-up, visit www.mountaintrue.org/clean-up-wnc-rivers.