Day 16 #Waterworld
Yes, the reference above is to the post-apocalyptic movie. There still is a hint of Ground Hog Day to it as well.
A bit of history goes with this missive today. You may remember the Great Christmas Water Outage of 2022. It was our first exposure to the Asheville City Government failure of the water system. It was then we learned that our little community, that sits just outside the city limits on Brown Mountain, is on the Mills River Treatment Plant. The temperatures dipped below zero and the Mills River Treatment plant literally froze. You can imagine the damage of a frozen water treatment plant. We went four days without water, which started on Christmas Eve. This incident prompted me to stockpile bottled water for future unthinkable disasters.
I guess now is the time we talked about the laws of water or fluidity. No, it doesn't have a mind of its own. It actually is pretty predictable if you understand the principle that water follows the path of least resistance. Working on baby diapers for most of my career at P&G, I learned this first principle pretty quickly--even if it is urine and not water as your teacher.
The Asheville City Water Department and the presenter of all things Waterworld, aka Assistant City Manager Ben Woody, would like everyone to believe that we are all simpletons. While I can appreciate that they talk about the state of the water distribution system every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the press briefing, I don't appreciate being talked down to. News Flash, neither do the other residents of this fair city.
For background, you may have heard me mention the North Fork Treatment plant. That plant services 80% of Asheville's water from a "pristine" reservoir. Remember the chocolate milk analogy? If not, you can find that missive on my Facebook page. The good news is that they have a 36 inch pipe connected now. Let's all give a cheer!! Let's also recognize a few other things.
That reservoir (prior to the wrath of Helene)has three feeder pipes to the treatment plant. Now we have one temporary one. The turbidity (a fancy word for how "pristine" or how much the water needs to be treated as Ben likes to say) is very high due to all the debris that flowed downstream into the reservoir (note...water follows the path of least resistance). Additionally, have I mentioned that I live in the mountains?
Another term Ben throws out, giving a false impression that he knows what he is talking about, is we currently have an open system. This is a technical term for something referring to--why don't we let you guess. Here are your multiple choices answers:
A) all the valves are open
B) water is allowed to flow through the pipes
C)pipes requiring pressurization to push it uphill is not happening
D) water flows along a path of least resistance
E) all of the above.
If you guessed E, Congratulations! You have won a trip to Waterworld Asheville. Bring your own potable and non-potable water.
I appreciate my years of working with engineers now more than ever. The disciplines they learned in college, finding answers to some of the most obscure problems, and attention to detail allow for some pretty spectacular discoveries---even when your career is studying toilet paper or baby diapers. I can only hope the engineers working on this water system don't feel like a certain city employee is gaslighting them.
I feel I need to warn all y'all that Tom is now on the case. Yesterday, Tom called every number he could find on the city website of the water department. His spiel left on countless answering machine had the right amount of fervor and respect. Overtime, the respect part will disappear--that's a warning. Of the many phone calls he made, one person had the gumption to call him back. I noted to myself that it was a female. Here's what he found out.
We have an open water system that follows the path of least resistance (imagine that). She didn't know there is a water storage tank right next to us (saying she has not been to South Asheville in many many years), and the tank hasn't been pressurized as well as the pipes that tank feeds are not pressurized.
Chasing down the flaws in what they are doing provides us with something to do for about five minutes. Believe me, we understand the water distribution system has "suffered a catastrophic blow." I understand that it will take weeks not days to fix it. I understand that we are 2 weeks into this and I cheer the men and women in the muck doing the work. I am thankful for them. I really am.
What I don't understand is why the water storage tank next to me is not being used. Why are the feeder pipes from that are not pressurized? Why are some customers who are usually served by the Mills River Treatment Plant are not served by the 100% fully operational plant?
If you get a hint of the frustration of not being heard, questions not being answered in this post, then you also win a trip to Waterworld Asheville. People denied water from a fully operational plant won't be patient forever. I see a thunderdome in the future.
Unfortunately, I don't see this as my last post about water. The more we dig into this the more astonishing it becomes. The answers we received are predictable and unacceptable.
Thanks again for reading, your remarks and your support. MadMax lives another day!
#asheville
#ashevillecitywater
#ashevillecitygovernment
Governor Roy Cooper
Senator Thom Tillis
Chuck Edwards
Below is a photo my new system of catching dishwater for flushing purposes.