Restaurants need potable water to operate, but at what cost?

As power, internet, cell phone service and nonpotable running water returned to much of Asheville and the surrounding area in the weeks after Tropical Storm Helene, the sighs of relief practically created their own autumn breeze. But one frustrating and debilitating day-to-day challenge that lingers even seven weeks later is sourcing potable water.

For home cooks, not being able to clean produce, cook or wash dishes with water coming from the faucet is an inconvenience. For those in the hospitality industry, it has been the determining factor in whether, when and how they can open for businesses.

For many restaurateurs, the path to that goal began in the immediate aftermath of the storm when they did what restaurant people do — jumped into action to feed their community. For several, that happened through partnerships with global humanitarian food nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK), which arrived in Western North Carolina immediately following the storm and set up headquarters at Bears Smokehouse BBQ on the South Slope.

Bobby Moody, owner of Moody Plumbing, ended up joining those efforts soon after WCK’s arrival when, while working from a relief command center he’d set up at his business on Airport Road, he received a call from a client, Bear’s co-owner Cheryl Antonic. WCK needed a plumbing company to find a way to get water to restaurant kitchens they planned to partner with, she told him.

“We partnered with them, and it was nuts from that point forward,” Moody says. “We set up so many additional places for them in Asheville, Boone, Banner Elk, Lake Lure, Green River. They were feeding like 30,000 people a day.”

Helene was not Moody’s first experience with natural disasters. He did some small jobs in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, then got into the thick of the chaos in Wilmington in the wake of Hurricane Florence in 2018. The first systems he began installing in Asheville for WCK were very basic — just the large, clear plastic water cubes seen all over town, set up with pumps and garden hosing. 

Though those setups worked, he says, they were a short-term solution for emergency relief. As those first-response efforts began to wind down and restaurants wanted to reopen to paying customers, health department requirements made it necessary to segue to more sophisticated — and costly — systems in order to charge people for food.  

Collective effort

Moody says he attempted to go through city channels for assistance in creating a long-term alternative water plan, but without success. “They just weren’t prepared for something as big and complex as this,” he says.

Eric Scheffer was among the Asheville restaurateurs who collaborated with WCK in the first weeks after the storm. At that stage, the organization set up and paid for the potable water systems needed at restaurant sites, including two of Scheffer’s four restaurants — Vinnie’s Neighborhood Italian North and Jettie Rae’s Oyster House — which were making 4,000 relief meals a day. 

But while working to help the community, Scheffer was also looking ahead to a time when he could reopen his businesses. “World Central doesn’t stick around forever,” he says. “Around day 14, they began winding down to fewer locations and told us they were coming to pick up their tanks. I needed to find a way to get water to my restaurants to open.”

Scheffer called on Moody to help source equipment needed to set up systems for his restaurants and others. “I had connections in that world and was able to get five to eight tanks at a time as needed and brought in on 18-wheelers,” Moody explains. 

Through his friend Rob Foster, CEO of Virtelle Hospitality Group, Scheffer got connected with mobile water provider Top Water Energy Solutions (TWES). After meeting with a company representative, he realized he needed to put together a large collective of restaurants to make daily deliveries of potable water viable on both ends.

Scheffer started calling fellow members of Asheville Independent Restaurant Association (AIR) about the project; one of those was Rich Cundiff, owner with wife, Lauren, of Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack on Patton Avenue and Sweeten Creek Road. WCK had been using the Cundiff’s Patton Avenue restaurant as a meal preparation site, and when WCK closed it, the organization left Cundiff with a 2,000-gallon storage tank and equipment but no water source.    

Scheffer’s call found him at the perfect time. Scheffer explained to Cundiff that they could source potable water from TWES at 10 cents a gallon with some additional costs, including a charge for joining the company’s delivery route. Water deliveries would be made daily.

Since Rocky’s already had the tank and system, the business didn’t have to pay for installation or equipment rental. The Cundiffs said yes, as did several other local restaurants.

Going with the flow

With water sourcing resolved, the group contracted Moody Plumbing to get large water tanks — 1,550 to 5,000 gallons — to place outside their restaurants, then build the systems to pump that water into the buildings. “We go to each restaurant to draw a plan,” says Moody. “Places like Vinnie’s with standalone buildings are easy, but downtown restaurants are a lot more challenging. There’s not a lot of room for tanks, and one or two pipes feed several buildings.”

Installation takes about four to five hours, with an upfront investment up to $4,000, along with additional weekly fees that cover rental of the tanks, pumps and pipes as well as maintenance. Once a business is finished with the equipment, it can be returned.

Water is delivered daily to the 16 restaurants now in Scheffer’s collective with an average usage per restaurant of 1,000-2,000 gallons per day. That group has exclusive rights to an 8,000-gallon water truck and another half the size that source from potable-certified sites in Waynesville, Weaverville and Tryon.

According to City of Asheville spokesperson Kim Miller, the city has not been requiring permits for water tanks placed in public rights of way. “When we become aware of the tanks going in, we ask the recipient to coordinate with the city to ensure emergency access is not affected, as well as to minimize impacts to sidewalks and more,” Miller says. “For all locations that worked with the city, we have found a way to make placement work safely.”

Before a restaurant can reopen, someone from Buncombe County’s Department of Health and Human Services has to inspect its water system and sign off. Felissa Vazquez, the county’s environmental health food and lodging supervisor, says that shortly after the storm ended, her team was on the ground helping conduct assessments of relief feeding sites, such as those operated by WCK, to ensure community food safety.

At the same time, one of her first requests to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Protection and Facilities Branch was to develop an emergency operations template that would speed up the process of approving alternate water supplies for food service businesses so they could safely reopen. With the county’s water situation constantly in flux over the past several weeks as efforts to restore service progress, Vazquez says her team tries to go with the flow.

“We had to remain flexible in our daily work and make sure we worked with industry,” she says. “When evaluating an establishment’s emergency operation plan, we make a visit to verify the source of the water or to see their procedure for boiling the water. In addition, we look at the containers and fixtures used to hold and transport the water to ensure they are intended for potable water.”

In addition to potable water being necessary for direct consumption, Velazquez points out that restaurants must use it for hand washing, ware washing and food production as well.

“Felissa has been a real ally in getting this going,” says Scheffer. “I can’t say enough about how helpful she and her department have been. [Assistant City Manager] Ben Woody has been great too.”

Moody is proud that he and his staff have been on the front lines in finding solutions. But he feels bad for the smaller businesses that can’t afford the up-front investment and ongoing costs of installing alternate water systems. “I wish I could record the conversations I have with people who desperately want and need to reopen but can’t afford to get the water to do it,” he says. “The City of Asheville has to do something to help.”

Scheffer is equally frustrated. Insurance generally hasn’t been covering the huge costs associated with the alternate systems, he says. He, too, has looked to city government to provide some kind of funding to offset what has become a crippling burden to one of Asheville’s most vital sectors, but without success.

“We are providing a service at great expense to us, operating for locals and visitors. Residents still have no water in their homes, and the city wants tourists back but is not offering to help us or reimburse us somewhere down the line,” Scheffer says. “We are taking this on the chin and bleeding money, and some places can’t get open at all. … My restaurants are between 50 and 65% of where we should be this time of year, but it’s better than zero. We just pray we can keep doing it until city water comes back.”