Curtains, chlorine and caustic soda: What you need to know about the Asheville water outage

Nov 03, 2024

"Water resources has a really big week this week," Asheville Water Resources Public Information Officer Clay Chandler said at Monday's community briefing.

The big week he described includes a second aluminum sulfate and caustic soda treatment of the city’s main reservoir, North Fork, in the hopes of moving it toward a drinkable condition.

Asheville has been without consumable tap water since Hurricane Helene turned the reservoir "upside down" more than a month ago. Since then, water resources staff built an alternative line from the main facility to replace one destroyed by the storm. The city also tried to treat the entire reservoir with the chemical treatments designed to make sediment coagulate, but strong wind interfered.

This week, contractors installed curtains to partition off part of the lake in the hopes of making a more treatable segment.

BPR News director Laura Lee spoke with Chandler on Tuesday to learn more about the water status. Hear an extended version of the conversation here: