ASHEVILLE – A sewage spill in Reed Creek described as "massive" by a local environmental group is under investigation by Metropolitan Sewerage District and could be difficult to pinpoint.

French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson, with the environmental nonprofit MountainTrue, described the leak shortly after it was discovered on Aug. 21. MountainTrue considers an E. coli reading of over 235 colony-forming units cause for concern, and Carson’s samples of gray Reed Creek water registered over 120,000 cfu.

Drinking or even coming into contact with water polluted with sewage can cause gastroenteritis (vomiting, diarrhea) or infections of the skin or eyes within days to weeks. Carson said people should not swim or play in Reed Creek until after the leak is addressed.

Ken Stines, director of collection system maintenance at the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County, said Aug. 22 his organization had a team investigating the leak that morning. Workers used dye packs to trace the flows from at least two large sewer pipes in the area.

"There's two possibilities that jump out at you," Stines said. "There's an 18-inch line that crosses Merrimon (Avenue) behind the gas station, heading over to Broadway. That's got quite a lot of flow on it — it picks up about everything above (North) Asheville."

A dye test suggested that pipe is probably not the culprit, though, leading Stines to suspect a 6-inch line, which starts near the Chick-fil-A on Merrimon and runs down to the I-240 interchange.

Merrimon closure while MSD checks lines

Plans called for a crew to check the 6-inch line the night of Aug. 22 with a camera and closed circuit TV feed, which will involve blocking some traffic on Merrimon, Stines said. The best case scenario is that the MSD crew can pinpoint the leak with the camera.

"Once we kind of rule these two out, that's not to say it couldn’t be a (private) sewer line," Stines said, referring to a line originating from a house or business.

It could be caused by a stopped up storm drain causing a sewer line back up. And that part of North Asheville has a lot of homes and businesses in it.

"It could be a real nightmare trying to pinpoint it and then fixing it," Stines said.

The Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County maintains most larger sewer lines in the area.

Reed Creek joins Glenn Creek before flowing into the Botanical Gardens, a popular hangout and wading spot for locals, “for better or for worse,” Carson said. That far down, it’s hard to tell there’s anything wrong with the water. “It looks normal-ish” except for a slight foaminess, Carson explained on Aug. 21.

While Carson described the leak as sizable, Stines noted that by volume it might not be that huge. A faulty private sewer line could cause Carson's E. coli readings to spike, Stines said.

MSD took water samples from the creek Aug. 22, but it uses a fecal coliform test that takes 24 hours to culture, Stines said. So they should get the results back the morning of Aug. 23.

Glenn and Reed Creek ultimately feed into the French Broad just upstream of Zillicoah Beer Co. It’s up to the Department of Health and Human Services to issue any swim advisories, but it would need a referral from the Department of Water Quality. The DEQ typically runs its own water samples before recommending swim advisories.