The roots did it: Sewage cleanup under way at river park

Do you know where your waste goes after you flush it down the toilet? In the case of a 12-inch line that overflowed near the French Broad River Park on Sunday, it rushes downhill along Riverview Road on its way to a pumping station that carries it across the river.

That’s how it’s supposed to flow.

But on Sunday, the flow got interrupted, with raw sewage bubbling out and pooling near the dog park. Citizen journalist Zen Sutherland snapped this photo of the nasties. Cleanup is under way, Metropolitan Sewerage District officials report. The problem? Probably a tree root, says Barry Cook, director of system services. That’s what crews pulled out when they got to the scene, evaluated the overflow and cleaned out the line.

He adds, “The line’s very old.” It’s just a section of nearly 1,000 miles of lines MSD maintains, and after the cleanup is complete, Cook continues, “We will be going in and doing some TV and seeing what the line’s doing.” The camera close-ups will help determine how bad the tree-roots infiltrated is and whether the lines needs replacing. The good news is, the spill didn’t reach the river, Cook mentions.

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About Margaret Williams
Editor Margaret Williams first wrote for Xpress in 1994. An Alabama native, she has lived in Western North Carolina since 1987 and completed her Masters of Liberal Arts & Sciences from UNC-Asheville in 2016. Follow me @mvwilliams

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3 thoughts on “The roots did it: Sewage cleanup under way at river park

  1. karen cragnolin

    This was picked up right away because so many people use that wonderful park- the first greenway in asheville – which we dedicate din 1994! YIKES!!! thanks for taking the picture and alerting us to the problem – MSD is on the way! This will happen when you have a 60 years of deferred maintenance as policy Karen Cragnolin

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