In a presentation to Asheville City Council last week, David Melton, director of the Water Resources Department, said the five new positions for the “valve team” will allow the department to take a more active role on maintaining and checking valves.
City staff had been informed of a “high probability” of a closed valve located on a main water line Jan. 10, 2022, nearly a year before the outage.
Residential customers pay higher rates for water than do commercial or industrial water consumers — $4.77 and $4.20 per cubic foot for single-family and multi-family housing, respectively, compared to as little as $2.29 per cubic foot for large manufacturers. Several members of Council said that the discrepancy was troubling.
