Johnathan Walker:Asheville residents still without clean water two weeks after Helene

ASHEVILLE,Johnathan Walker N.C. — Officials in Asheville are scrambling to replenish clean drinking water two weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Helene debilitated critical supplies.

The North Fork Reservoir, just a few miles northeast of the hard-hit Blue Ridge Mountain town, supplies more than 70% of the city’s water customers. Earlier this week, the city received a hopeful sign: A 36-inch bypass water mainline was reconnected to the city’s water distribution system.

State and federal officials are looking to speed up water restoration by treating the reservoir directly. For now, the reservoir − normally clean several feet below the surface − is a murky brown from sediment.

“Priority No. 1 is to get clean, quality drinking water to everyone who doesn’t have that,” Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and formerly North Carolina’s environmental quality secretary, said on a recent tour of the reservoir. “And so as we look at private wells and the water system, we want to be able to provide every single asset we have.”

In the meantime, water distribution sites, using bottled water, have been set up in the region. Water remains the biggest need for residents in Asheville, with an estimated 417,000 people in the metropolitan area, recovering after Helene. Thousands remain without power.

Clear water could take weeks, or even months, without direct treatment, said David Melton, Asheville's water resources director. The point of direct treatment is to get the reservoir to a place where it can be treated by the water plant, he explained Thursday. The chemical treatment, aluminum sulfate, bonds clay particles together, causing them to sink to the bottom. It will be applied in 500-foot swathes radiating out from the intake. 

More:Helene in Western North Carolina: Everything you need to know from help to recovery efforts

Heading into fall, officials are pressed for time. As temperatures cool in the mountain region, the natural process of settling out particulate matter slows, too. 

With the mountain reservoir as a backdrop, Gov. Roy Cooper spoke not only of the need to rebuild damaged water infrastructure but improve it to withstand something like Helene. The governor called the disaster unprecedented and said flood waters came into parts of the region they never had before. 

“We have to take that into account as we work to rebuild and repair these water systems,” Cooper said. “We appreciate the great work that’s been done and we know that this needs to be done as quickly and effectively as possible.” 

How North Fork Reservoir water is typically treated

The reservoir stores untreated water pumped from the Mills River, where suspended material typically settles out. Upon entering the treatment plant, any remaining particulate is treated with aluminum sulfate, a salt, which causes the heavy particles to settle out into catch basins.

The water undergoes additional disinfection and filtration before its acidity is balanced and fluoride added. From there, corrosion inhibitors and chlorine are added to preserve water quality in the distribution system. 

While the reservoir gets a healthy amount of attention as the holding tank for most of the city’s water, the Asheville Water Resources Department and Department of Public Works are working to find leaks and broken lines in other places around the city, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said. 

“They have put their own lives aside and worked night and day to meet the great needs of our city,” Manheimer said. “They have done heroic work.”

For residents with private wells in the region, Regan touted the EPA’s mobile testing lab that is capable of testing 100 samples per day. Residents can contact their local health agency to get equipment, and the EPA will test the water for free on a roughly 48-hour turnaround. 

“This is very critical because we want people to have confidence in their drinking water,” Regan said. “And if we test that water and it’s safe, then we don’t have another health issue on our hands.” 

As many as 20,000 private wells possibly were affected by Helene, Regan said.