Three days of storms take a toll on Canton water system
May 23—CANTON — Lingering issues from Tropical Storm Fred are still impacting the water supply in Canton, as well as Clyde, which purchases its water from its closest neighbor.
Weekend storms, as well as a constant downpour on Monday, have stirred up mud and debris from the Pigeon River where Canton draws its municipal water supply, said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers.
"We pushed out on social media a call for voluntary conservation of water because the rain has greatly decreased the quality of water we were able to pull in from the river," he said. "There's a lot of debris left over from the floods still in the river. It's a different river than we had last year."
At one point, the six filters at the Canton water treatment plant were down to one or two, Smathers said, and the town crew was working around the clock to get them cleaned up.
"Now we're up to four," Smathers said at 3 p.m. Monday, and by evening we hope to be back at six."
Smathers said the town wasn't aware of any water customer who lost water service, and that was partly because people were considerate of their neighbors and did their best to conserve water as requested.
A boil water advisory was issued in both Canton and Clyde simply because periods of low pressure increase the potential for back siphonage and introducing bacteria into the water.
"Vigorous boiling for one minute should kill any disease-causing organisms that may be present in the water," the advisory stated.
The town plans to use the $9.2 million state legislative appropriation to fix the very water problems that led to the most recent boil water advisory, Smathers said, and there could be some federal funding available, as well.
"Balancing all the different reservoirs is complex and there is a lot of water going back and forth," he said. "The river has not been able to recover, and the spring storms stirred up a lot of nasty mud and debris that choked out our ability to keep the water quality were it needed to be."
Joy Garland, administrator for Clyde, said she notified town residents of the emergency water conservation notice issued by Canton Monday morning and of the boil water advisory that came after noon that day.
Garland said she didn't know of anybody in town who was without water as of 4 p.m. Monday.
Clyde officials have been trying to develop a secondary water source for several years to address situations just like this, including drilling two wells that ended up not having enough water.
Garland said the town has recently had a study done that looks at other alternatives.
Meanwhile, Junaluska Sanitary District is a backup in the event the water supply from Canton is temporarily interrupted.
"We're working with them to get that viable," she said. "It requires bacteria testing and flushing, but that is in the works."
As of Tuesday afternoon, the voluntary water conservation request, as well as the boil water advisory were still in effect.
