Helene Recovery Updates: Water Updates, Blue Ridge Parkway Assessments, and Storm Debris Management

Buncombe County Government offices including Health and Human Services at 40 Coxe Ave. in Asheville are open again today, but due to safety concerns, most of the County’s parks are closed. Currently, the only open parks are Hominy Valley Park and North Buncombe Fields. Buncombe County libraries are open with the exception of three locations - Fairview Library, Oakley Library, and Swannanoa Library. 

Food and Water Distribution 
At the end of the day today, Fairview Elementary School and A.C. Reynolds Middle School distribution sites will close. Operations will be relocated to the Ingles parking lot at 225 Charlotte Highway, close to the former locations.  
The other food and water distribution sites will remain open:   

• Sky Lanes Bowling Alley   
• Black Mountain Ingles   
• Swannanoa Ingles   
• Linwood Crump Shiloh Community Center (no flushing water) 
• Pack Square Park   
• Buncombe County Sports Park   

D-SNAP 
One day is left to apply for the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance or D-SNAP. Apply in person at 40 Coxe Ave. in Asheville from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you are unable to go in-person, fill out an authorization form and send an authorized person in your place. The application process can also be started online by pre-registering at epass.nc.gov and then calling the DSNAP Call Center at 1-844-453-1117.    

Elections  
Last night, the Buncombe County Board of Elections voted unanimously to approve the polling locations for Election Day, Nov. 5. The storm’s destruction required the county to replace or transfer to another location 17 of the 80 voting sites. Residents can view the complete list at buncombecounty.org/vote. It will take the Board of Elections staff a few days to populate the online tool at buncombecounty.org/vote with all the new locations. When ready, residents who are unsure of where to vote on election day can use this to find the name and address of the polling location.  
More than 38,000 voters have taken advantage of our 10 early voting locations:  

• Black Mountain Library   
• East Asheville Library   
• Enka-Candler Library    
• Fairview Library    
• South Buncombe Library   
• West Asheville Library  
• UNCA Health & Counseling Center   
• Weaverville Community Center   
• Dr. Wesley Grant Southside Center    
• Leicester Community Center   

You can vote every day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.  

Trash and Debris Pickup 
On Thursday, Oct. 24, Waste Pro will run routes in Fairview where accessible.   
SDR, the County’s storm debris collection contractor, will have trucks in the following fire districts this week:  

• Barnardsville  
• Swannanoa  
• Fairview  
• Garren Creek  
• Riceville  
• East Buncombe  
• North Buncombe  

Residents should bring their storm debris to the right-of-way. 

Demolition and Asbestos Removal  
If you plan to demolish or remodel any building in Buncombe County, you must obtain a permit from the Asheville-Buncombe Air Quality Agency. You must also obtain a permit for any plans to remove any asbestos containing materials. A free permit can be obtained online through the permit portal at buncombecounty.org/air. For questions, please contact the Agency at 828-250-6777 or at airquality@buncombecounty.org.  

Grants for Farmers  
Farmers impacted by Helene can receive up to $3,000 for the Helene Recovery Grant from EmPowering Mountain Food Systems. The grant covers necessary recovery supplies such as generators, fencing, hoop house repair/replacement, and more.  
To be eligible, farms must have sustained damages from Helene, and must be in Buncombe, Burke, Cleveland, Haywood, Jackson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Qualla Boundary, Rutherford, Swain, Watauga, and Yancey. 

Volunteer  
The Volunteer Reception Center is officially open Saturday from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at 50 S. French Broad Ave. in Asheville. Locals looking for a volunteer opportunity are welcome to go to this location to be assigned to a need. As previously shared, the County can’t absorb an influx of volunteers who aren’t connected with organizations, so if you are looking to volunteer, going through the Volunteer Reception Center is 100 percent the right avenue for you to share your time and talents.  

National Park Service 
The Blue Ridge Parkway, which spans 469 miles from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park entrance near Cherokee, endured a lot of storm damage. Assessments in many locations are ongoing to determine the full extent of damage including possible timelines and preliminary estimates for repairs. 

• At least 30 slides occurred in various sections of the Parkway in NC, and 10 of those are considered major and involve loss of the road itself.
• Initial assessments also discovered thousands of trees across the roadway, smaller rockslides and mudslides covering the roadway, and the destruction of the Linville Falls Visitor Center, with significant damage to other popular destinations like campgrounds and picnic areas. 

This morning, the first section in North Carolina re-opened since the storm from milepost 285 to 305 at Grandfather Mountain. This section includes Linn Cove Viaduct, which did not sustain any damage from the storm and Moses Cone Manor Estate, which received damage to its carriage barn and trails, along with many other popular Parkway destinations. While the road is now open, some facilities and services will be closed or otherwise unavailable right away. 

For safety reasons, the park asks people to be patient and respect all remaining closures as NPS assessment and clean up work continues. 
Many areas remain unsafe due to hidden hazards, such as weakened portions of the roadway, snags, hazard trees, and unstable slopes. Unauthorized use also hinders work crews. The NPS is working to ensure that areas can reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. 

City of Asheville 
As of this morning, City offices are open to the public.  This does not include all City recreation facilities such as recreation centers and those managed by our Community and Regional Entertainment Facilities Department. For more information on recreation centers, visit ashevillenc.gov.   

The City of Asheville has identified existing City resources that can be used as grants to support home repair, business stabilization, and rental assistance grants. At last night’s City Council meeting, nearly $4 million in existing City resources was approved to provide grants to businesses and residents impacted by Helene.   

The City will partner with nonprofit organizations to manage the distribution of these community grants. Residents are still encouraged to apply for individual assistance funding through FEMA, and businesses and individuals to pursue resources through the Small Business Administration. 

The afterschool program run by the Parks and Recreation Department will return from 3-6 p.m., Monday, October 28. This programming is for students who were previously enrolled in afterschool. 

City of Asheville Storm Debris Management 
There are three temporary debris management sites that have been permitted and activated in the City of Asheville. 

• Enka Commerce Park: a more industrial location over half a mile away from any schools; the only site that is currently receiving debris. 
• 65 Ford Street: construction and demolition debris at this site will be compacted and removed in the next two weeks. The vegetative debris will remain at this site at this time. 
• The front nine of the Municipal Golf Course: No material has been brought into the golf course at this time. 

Additional permit applications have been submitted to NCDEQ, including for sites within the River Arts District corridor to enable contractors to manage debris within that area. 

Zoning: The City of Asheville Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) allows for the placement of any temporary uses that the City Manager deems "necessary or desirable in conjunction with the management of the emergency." This is outlined specifically in the Temporary Uses section of the UDO. 

Finding adequate temporary sites is challenging: 

• There are state regulations that limit where temporary sites can be staged, including required distances from waterways, residences, wells, and roads. 
• There must be enough space to stage and process the debris so it can be monitored, sorted, processed and hauled away to a permanent site outside of the city. 

Accountability and Monitoring: Debris collection contractors can only collect debris that meets regulatory requirements. 

• If Debris collection contractors note hazardous waste at a debris collection site, they will notify appropriate staff and state agencies to contain and mitigate the waste. 
• Debris monitors follow collection trucks to make sure there is compliance with FEMA regulations. 
• Sites are marked by surveyors to identify required boundaries and setbacks. 
• Sites are monitored at least twice a week by City staff to ensure operations are remaining within permit guidelines. Also, by the Asheville Fire Dept staff and by NCDEQ to ensure compliance with permit requirements. 
• Random soil and water samples will be collected at sites for analysis. 

Sorting: An initial assessment shows up to 3 million cubic yards of storm debris in the City—equivalent to roughly 140 football fields stacked 10 feet high. City contractors and staff are collecting storm debris around Asheville as quickly as possible, seven days a week. 
In order to expedite the collection process, residents should sort debris near the curb into the following categories: 

• Construction, demolition, and bulky items 
• Appliances 
• Electronics 
• Vegetative Debris 
• And Household Hazardous Waste 

Do not block the roadway with debris or place debris on utilities or meters. Storm debris does not have to be placed out all at once. Contractors will be making routine collections. 
Additionally, mud and sediment with no signs of contamination can be placed by the curb for proper disposal. 

Water Restoration Updates 
Water Resources lab staff conduct daily testing at the water source and throughout the distribution system for total coliform, E. Coli and chlorine. 

To ensure the safety of customers, Water Resources, with guidance from the EPA and North Carolina DEQ, developed and implemented a water sampling plan specific to recovering from Helene. Most sample stations are taps going right into the water lines. There are 184 sampling stations throughout the distribution system. Under normal conditions, 8-10 stations per day are tested. However, since Helene, there are 35 stations per day on average.

Water Resources’ in-house testing is slightly more accurate when the water is clear. As a result, samples are sent to a third-party lab, and the results have a turnaround time of 7-10 days. 
Due to current conditions created by Helene, Water Resources staff are currently testing for aluminum, iron and manganese daily. Under normal conditions, weekly tests for aluminum, iron and manganese are done at the source and on finished water from a faucet in our lab. Typically, results that indicate elevated levels of iron, manganese and aluminum are extremely rare. 
To protect human health, the federal government has set secondary maximum contaminant limits (recommended acceptable levels of each) in drinking water 

• Aluminum – 0.05-0.2 ppm 
• Iron – 0.3 ppm 
• Manganese – 0.05 ppm 
• Chlorine – 4 ppm (After Helene, both EPA and NCDEQ allowed us to chlorinate initially at 8 ppm, which we did, but we have since dropped down to 6 ppm) 
• Total coliform – No more than 5 positive tests in a month (we have had zero since Helene) 
• E.Coli – 0.00 (we have had no detections since Helene) 

Water restoration updates from the City of Asheville, can be found here. 
There is also a Sampling Plan for the North Fork Raw Water testing, performed everyday. To read the full plan, click here.