Some facts and thoughts on water

 Asheville's difficulties with it's water...

"...dates to the Great Depression and the insistence on paying off a massive debt load while ignoring infrastructure needs. In the middle part of the 20th century, the city funneled some water revenues toward the Depression-era debt, which was finally paid off in 1976.

The most recent water outage, which left tens of thousands of customers without water and spanned 11 days over Christmas and New Year’s, was precipitated by a severe three-day cold event. Throughout the system, 27 city-owned waterlines broke, and when the city turned to its Mills River water plant to produce water, workers found it unable to operate because parts of it were frozen.

It is well known that due to old and faulty pipes leaking, one-fourth of the water produced at the city’s two main reservoirs, North Fork and Bee Tree, leaked into the ground. Read more from Asheville Watchdog here.

Engineering experts say infrastructure issues, a lack of preparation and a poor response to the crisis played key roles in the debacle.

The politicians will continue to look into what might be a right and good answer to these problems. It is sad to have a city where water problems have plagued the citizens for so long. 

I may live in an outlying town, Black Mountain, and have that source of my water services. But many of my neighbors have Asheville water supplies, and there are definitely frequent pipe leaks that require repairs.

A view of the Burnett Reservoir serving Asheville NC, photo by Cindy Kunst

Today's quote:

Black holes are where God divided by zero. ―Albert Einstein