Water woes all around, but Asheville seems just fine

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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I wish someone would really explain to me what’s up with the city of Asheville and its water system.

We’re in a terrible drought. The French Broad River is at its lowest level ever. Yet there are no advisories coming from the city about conservation. In fact, everything appears to be just rosy.

Here’s a tidbit:

Despite being in the grip of the worst stage of drought, the city has not implemented mandatory or voluntary water restrictions this summer.

The North Fork Reservoir in Black Mountain, the city’s primary water source, has an adequate supply of water, and the city lifted voluntary restrictions on water usage in April. “Right now we’re in very good shape,” said water resources director David Hanks. “We’re not in any dire straits at the moment.”

The 6 billion-gallon North Fork reservoir draws water from as far away as Mount Mitchell and the location in Black Mountain tends to be not as dry as areas farther south. The reservoir, however, remains about 10.6 feet below full pool levels, and the entire county remains in exceptional drought, according to federal drought monitors.

One of the reasons the city is weathering the drought better than other WNC municipalities: The system was designed when Asheville had more industrial users, Hanks said. Today, the system uses less than half its total capacity.

“We don’t have a lot of big water users,” he said. “We have a lot of excess capacity.”

Meantime, the folks just to the south of us in Henderson County are drying up. And on Buncombe County’s eastern border, things appear to be drying up. From the McDowell News:

Due to the continuing drought, the city of Marion is asking people to cut back on their water use.

On Tuesday, city officials issued a water shortage advisory. City Manager Bob Boyette said the city is asking all water customers, both inside and outside the Marion limits, to employ voluntary water conservation measures and limit their use of water for only essential items. The conservation measures also apply to customers on the Nebo water system.

So all around us, people are urging conservation. But right here in Buncombe, everything is hunky-dory? Just doesn’t seem right.