Asheville sewage system largely functional, though water to flush toilets weeks away

The Metropolitan Sewage District of Buncombe County is largely back up and functioning a week after Tropical Storm Helene hit the Asheville area, prompting record flooding of its two major rivers.

The utility treats wastewater sewage from roughly 170,000 people in 60,000 residential, commercial and industrial locations in Buncombe and northern Henderson counties. It operates 40 pumping stations connected by 1,100 miles of sewer lines.

As of Wednesday, 38 of the 40 stations were operating on stand-by generator power, according to Thomas Hartye, an engineer and general manager of the sewerage district.

Matthew Green, an electrician and mechanic with the Metropolitan Sewage District, looks out from Asheville's Carrier Bridge Station on Wednesday toward the French Broad River. The station is the largest among the district's 40 stations. As of Wednesday, 38 of the 40 are being powered by stand-by generators.
Matthew Green, an electrician and mechanic with the Metropolitan Sewage District, looks out from Asheville's Carrier Bridge Station on Wednesday toward the French Broad River. The station is the largest among the district's 40 stations. As of Wednesday, 38 of the 40 are being powered by stand-by generators.

The system's largest is Asheville's Carrier Bridge Station, which resumed operation Monday. Had it remained offline, the excessive amount of river water would not have receded so quickly. Rather than strictly pumping sewage, the station began pumping the storm water.

The system pumps wastewater from buried pipes along the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers to the district's water reclamation facility in Woodfin. There, the water is treated and released to the French Broad.

The water and system operations are not connected to the area's drinking water — which provides the water needed to flush toilets.

More: Asheville woman, 28, among dead, 'washed away' in Swannanoa River during Helene, mom says

Hartye said staff is ferrying fuel to the generators, with two smaller stations — one in northern Henderson County and the Rockwell station — still underwater.

The Carrier Bridge Station is located roughly two-tenths of a mile from the French Broad River and close to its confluence with the Swannanoa River. Both rivers broke gauge height records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Swannanoa near the historic Biltmore Village crested at 26.1 feet, almost 10 feet above major flooding level. The highest the river previously had crested was 20.7 feet.

The French Broad crested at 24.6 feet, above the previous record of 23.1 feet. That brought it up over the French Broad River Greenway and inundated the River Arts District.

On Wednesday, a line of debris was still visible on the gate around the Carrier Bridge Station, a reminder of how high the French Broad had surged beyond its banks.

Mark Ferris, a Metropolitan Sewage District employee, opens the gate Wednesday to Asheville's Carrier Bridge Station. The French Broad River crested to record heights following Tropical Storm Helene, leaving a line of debris on the fence that is still visible days after the river began to recede.
Mark Ferris, a Metropolitan Sewage District employee, opens the gate Wednesday to Asheville's Carrier Bridge Station. The French Broad River crested to record heights following Tropical Storm Helene, leaving a line of debris on the fence that is still visible days after the river began to recede.

Matthew Green, an electrician and mechanic with the sewer district, said that on average, the station pumps 8 million to 12 million gallons per day. It has a much higher capacity — 25 million gallons per day — but during the flooding, it was overwhelmed.

On Saturday, just after the floodwaters crested, Green and Mark Ferris, a sewer employee for nearly 27 years, waded through a mix of sewage and storm water to reach the station. The pump station, four stories underground, was filled with roughly 1 million gallons of sewage and storm water, Green said.

"It was overwhelmed. It was like nothing I'd ever seen," he said adding, "That is not supposed to happen and has never happened before."

By Monday, workers had a standby generator running, and the pump house quickly emptied.

The floodwaters have receded, but a mix of sewage and storm water remains, caked on the pathways and buildings. In addition, large debris is still visible in bushes, downed trees and the banks of the French Broad.

More: Why was Asheville, North Carolina flooding so bad? Rare weather events and climate change are to blame

Green said he and other employees "saw everything" floating down the French Broad.

“Hundreds of brand new propane tanks. Parts of buildings. Water and sewer pipes from the Apex plastics manufacturing plant. We watched thousands of feet of it float down the river," Green said. "There was nothing we could do about it."

He said everything will end up in Douglas River, a reservoir in eastern Tennessee, "or somewhere along the way."

"This wasn't a 100-year event. This was a millennial event," Green said. "It's something we all hope we never see again."

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe sewage district survives record flooding on Asheville rivers