One million gallons of raw sewage an hour has been leaking into the French Broad River since around 8:15 a.m. today after a pump failed at the Metropolitan Sewerage District treatment plant.
About a dozen MSD workers are trying to fix the problem and hope to have it repaired later today, according to Stan Boyd, director of engineering at MSD.
MSD photo image link. Photo of overflowing manhole courtesy of Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson of the WNC Alliance.
16 Comments
They should send Moffitt and Ramsey down there to stop the leak since they know so much about the water system and what is best for Asheville. In fact what is flowing in the river is what those two have been feeding the citizens of Avl. and Buncombe county.
let’s offer a nice cool drink of water-system to tim muppet…oops, meant moffitt.
I really feel bad for the folks who had riverside campsites at the French Broad River Fest in Hot Springs this weekend. Gross.
The irony of this is that if the situation were reversed and MSD was controlled by the City of Asheville and the water system by a regional entity, the legislature would be yelling bloody murder and would pass legislation this afternoon to strip the city of the MSD.
Did Sierra Nevada ever find the source of all the Ecoli in the FB near the airport? The were looking for a source so they could clean up the cause and use the water, correct?
I know of a person that got swept down the river near Long Shoals and swallowed some of it. They were severely sick for days afterwards.
The French Broad flows North so Sierra Nevada will not be effected by this …
But Sierra Nevada tested the river by them and found it to have some of the highest levels of Ecoli recorded. They were going to try and find the source, whether farm or busted line. Yes the river is pretty contaminated at both ends. You won’t catch me getting in it.
It was the Mexican food I had last night. Sorry guys …
do you think this is a laughing matter “don mak” if thats even your real name! mexican food yes is a digestive motivator but by no means could cause such a disaster….indian food could have done the job tho…
This is the same lame comment he left on the West Asheville Watch thread. A tired joke told twice is a tired joke told twice.
And this is who we are “giving” our water system to, at no charge???!
Why is the sewage plant next to the river anyway? This is the worst possible thing that could happen to Asheville.
The river, obviously, is the lowest part of the basin in which Asheville sits and the treatment plant is downstream from the bulk of the metropolitan area. All the stuff dumped into the system needs to gravity flow down to where it needs to be treated. E VOILA!!
Why is the sewage plant next to the river? Where else would you put it? The treated sewage has to go *somewhere* once they’re done with it.
Sewage has to flow downhill from your house, alongside the river is the lowest spot in the city…you can figure that out.
Uh oh…