7 weeks after Helene, this North Carolina city could get safe drinking water next week

Asheville, North Carolina, residents could have a boil water notice lifted as soon as Tuesday, more than seven weeks after Hurricane Helene struck on September 27.

Asheville, North Carolina, residents could have a boil water notice lifted as soon as Tuesday, more than seven weeks after Tropical Storm Helene struck on September 27. Helene hit western North Carolina as a tropical storm, causing devastating flood damage and harm to its water system. The storm dumped so much water over the southern Appalachians in three days that it became a catastrophic, once-in-1,000-year rainfall event for the region, the National Weather Service said. Asheville Water Resources spokesperson Clay Chandler said Friday there’s a sampling process that must take place before the notice can be lifted. “Due to reduced turbidity levels in the North Fork Reservoir and our capacity to push treated water into the system, we’ve been able to feed a sufficient amount of filtered water into the distribution system without blending it with raw water,” Chandler said. Turbidity is a measure of the level of particles in a body of water, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The turbidity level must be around 1.5-2 units to be safe for a standard treatment process at North Carolina’s North Fork Reservoir, the city previously said. The North Fork Reservoir provides water to most people in Asheville, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times. Its turbidity levels dropped below 15 units on Wednesday, according to recent information released by the city. Turbidity levels had been as high as 90 units in the immediate aftermath of Helene, CNN affiliate WLOS reported.