Asheville City Manager Gary Jackson told WHKP News this week that Asheville is willing to help Hendersonville through the current drought situation…based on an earlier agreement under which Hendersonville is authorized to purchase up to 3 million gallons of water a day from the Asheville system. Hendersonville currently uses one million gallons a day of that authorized 3 million. Asheville draws water largely from it’s North Fork Reservoir, which holds 6 billion gallons of water…and draws waterfrom as far away as rain-prone areas including Mount Mitchell.
Hendersonville Mayor Greg Newman says even if Hendersonville buys 3 to 3 and one-half million gallons a day from Asheville, it would NOT relieve the need for water restrictions. And in addition, says Newman, the pipelines are not in place at this time to bring that much water into the Hendersonville’s system from Asheville.
Hendersonville is being urged by local businesses and by county commissioners to purchase as much water as possible from Asheville in this current drought situation, hopefully to remove the mandatory restrictions.
Even in this current drought, Asheville is imposing no water restrictions on it’s customers because of the large store-house of water in the North Fork Reservoir.