Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:

Question: Why is there so much plastic hung up in trees and shrubs from Helene? Where did it all come from? Will anyone clean it up? When?

My answer: This is undoubtedly the worst Christo exhibit ever. I just don’t get his vision on this one.

Real answer: It is hard to miss all of the debris still hanging from trees and brush along our river and stream banks. Naturally, Tropical Storm Helene is to blame.

The 1,000-year rains swelled rivers to upward of 30 feet deep in some places. That’s high enough to get into the tree line, and that’s where a lot of debris landed.

The debris remains highly noticeable, said Anna Alsobrook, the French Broad watershed science and policy manager at MountainTrue, an Asheville environmental nonprofit.

“While it’s gotten better with the help of volunteers picking it up in places, the amount of plastic hanging from trees looks apocalyptic,” Alsobrook told me via email. “Take a minute and think about how hard it is for us as individual consumers to buy anything that’s not wrapped in or packaged in plastic. The same is true for retailers, manufacturers, and industries, but the amount and volume is much greater for them.”

Whatever was next to our rivers and streams went into the water, including plastic.

“So, when a building was flooded, anything inside of it came out, including all the packaging, plastic waste, etc., that may have been inside,” Alsobrook said. “On top of that, plastic is a major part of building material — whether as insulation or under roofing.”

We do have some good news to report.

“MountainTrue is working to clean up where and how we can with the help of some really rockstar volunteers,” Alsobrook said. “I’m telling you, they have braved some subpar conditions lately! That being said, we are staying out of the way of the debris contractors hired to remove the bigger debris, like cars, tankers etc.”

Hartwell Carson, the French Broad riverkeeper with MountainTrue, provided details on river cleanup progress.

“Between our Green Riverkeeper, French Broad Riverkeeper and Watauga Riverkeeper programs, we have hauled out over 2.8 million pounds of garbage from our rivers since the storm,” Carson said. “We have hired a full-time cleanup coordinator, acquired a new vehicle and purchased a dump trailer. We are also employing over a dozen raft guides in Madison County to clean up the whitewater section of the French Broad River and are hoping to ramp up our cleanup team to include 25 to 50 staff.”

Additionally, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Feb. 1 that the Corps, “in coordination with federal, state, and local partners, has officially launched a waterway debris removal mission in North Carolina to support recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene.

“The mission focuses on clearing storm-related debris from navigable waterways, ensuring public safety, protecting critical infrastructure, and preserving the environment,” the Corps said in the news release.

Col. Brad Morgan, Wilmington District Commander for the Corps, noted that Helene “left significant debris in key waterways, posing risks to recreation and ecosystems. 

The Corps said the recovery work will be done “in close coordination with local agencies and stakeholders.”

Carson said they’ve learned that the Army Corps’s cleanup efforts, “for now, will only cover major tributaries and only big debris that threatens critical infrastructure.

“Think cars, shipping containers, etc.,” Carson said. “That means there will be a huge amount of trash left after the cleanup effort and MountainTrue is stepping up to make sure this trash is cleaned up, so we can get back on our rivers and outfitters reopen.”

Plastic material stuck in trees is “a good example of the kind of trash that the Army Corps won’t be removing,” Carson said.

Stacey Reese, a spokesperson for the Corps, said via email they are tasked with removing these types of debris: vegetative, construction and demolition, titled property (boats, cars, etc.), white goods, and hazardous materials.”

“We will work on points given to us by the county and FEMA, and (we’ll be) working in areas FEMA deems eligible,” Reese said. “The waterway debris removal began in Buncombe County, Azalea Park area on Saturday.”

Alsobrook said once the Corps’ teams have completed the heavy machinery work, “we plan to come back in and tackle the hand-pickable items.”

If you’re interested in volunteering, check MountainTrue’s events calendar at  mountaintrue.org/events.

Question: I just heard that the Asheville Muni Golf Course may close in March. If true, that is not fair to those who paid for a season’s pass. The first three months of the year there is limited play due to winter weather. Can you get details?

My answer: I recently played the back nine of the Muni twice consecutively, as only the back nine is open now. I was thinking that playing the same nine twice, I naturally would smoke the course and shoot my best score ever. Funny how that didn’t work out.

Real answer: Closure is highly unlikely.

The Muni’s front nine, the part closest to Swannanoa River Road and the river itself, was heavily damaged, but the back nine reopened in October, after the city cleared multiple downed trees.

“The front nine will clearly be some time before we are able to reopen,” said Chris Corl, the city of Asheville’s director of community and regional entertainment facilities.

Corl noted that City Council in December approved an amendment to the licensing and management agreement contract with Commonwealth Golf Partners to operate the course that adjusted the profit-and-loss share structure between the city and Commonwealth. It placed 100 percent of profits and loss with the city, paying Commonwealth a small monthly management fee to operate the course on the city’s behalf, Corl said.

“Included was a provision that beginning April 1, 2025, the agreement would revert back to the original profit-and-loss share structure, which is roughly a 50/50 split between the city and Commonwealth,” Corl said.

The amendment covering Oct. 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025 is designed to give the city time to work out a longer-term, temporary agreement with Commonwealth. Corl said the city is in conversation with Commonwealth to determine “what a contract structure can look like,  assuming that the course remains a nine-hole course for up to two years, as we work through the process to rebuild while following the necessary steps and timelines associated with potential FEMA reimbursement.”

Regarding the 2025 annual passes, the city purposely formulated them with quarterly payments to allow for the potential shakeup in the operating structure starting April 1.

“I understand that this January we’ve had an abnormally high number of days with the course closed due to weather, but that is always a possibility in the winter and affects annual passholders and non-passholders every year,” Corl said.

The bottom line, Corl said, “is that the course will not close in March.

“However, I should be clear that we have an existing approved agreement through March 31,” Corl said. “April 1 and after, we are still working through, and all options are on the table, as reverting to the original contract structure pre-storm is not feasible for us and Commonwealth.”

“We’re certainly doing everything in our power to work on a result and a financial model that continues course operations, but to be prudent stewards of our current financial situation, we need to look at all potential options,” Corl continued.

Michael Bennett, a partner in Commonwealth Golf Partners, said Corl’s assessment is correct. He also noted that the annual passes are paid only through the end of March.

Closure is doubtful, Bennett said.

“I just don’t see it,” Bennett said. “Chris has been very good to work with.”

Bennett noted that the course was in great shape before Helene, with the restoration nearly complete.

“We really just finished everything except for those two bunkers on 18 — that was the only thing we had left to do,” Bennett said. “We stopped in June because we didn’t want to disturb them ahead of the Skyview Tournament.”

Business was good before the storm, Bennett said, and he noted that the course, a Donald Ross design dating to the 1920s, still has fantastic potential.

“So to close it would be pretty tragic,” Bennett said. “I don’t think anybody really thinks that that’s going to happen. It’s just more mechanical — like, ‘OK, how do we continue to fund this while it’s just a nine-hole golf course?’ Because it’s nearly impossible to make any money operating a nine-hole golf course, because the expenses aren’t half of what you might think they are.”

Corl said before Helene the city was about  95 percent done with the renovation project. As of  September 2024, the city had spent $3,018,468 on it.

The city received funds towards the project from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s Tourism Product Development Fund, the Donald Ross Society Foundation, hole sponsorships, private donations made through the Friends of Asheville Municipal, and the city.

For now, Bennett said, the idea is to keep maintaining the course, and find a way to keep it open and at least not losing money.

Bennett said the “worst-case scenario” for the front nine to remain closed is probably about two years, although he emphasized nothing has been determined on the rebuilding schedule.

He did note that Commonwealth and the city submitted a detailed damage assessment to FEMA about two weeks ago, so he’s optimistic that will help to get the process rolling.

“Because we were one of the first ones in, we all believe that we’ll be one of the early ones to get reviewed,” Bennett said.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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A passenger jet on its initial approach to the Asheville Regional Airport in October came within seconds of colliding midair with a private plane in a harrowing incident described by the jet’s captain in federal data obtained by Asheville Watchdog.

The private plane was “so close that I could see the occupant in the aircraft,” the jet’s captain reported. “It was approaching almost directly perpendicular to us.”

Shem Malmquist, a Boeing 777 captain and consultant on aviation safety, told The Watchdog the planes likely narrowly averted disaster. “If you’re close enough to see the occupants, that’s really close,” he said. 

The account in the Aviation Safety Reporting System, a database maintained by NASA to identify aviation issues, does not include any identifying information such as the names of the airline or pilots, the flight number or departing city, the number of passengers, or the day of the month. The event was described as an “NMAC,” near midair collision and occurred sometime between noon and 6 p.m.

The collision last week between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter was one of the nation’s deadliest in recent history, killing 67 passengers and crew members, and occurred in the crowded, busy airspace of the U.S. capital. But close calls happen at much smaller airports, including Asheville.

The captain in the October near-miss reported that the airport’s air traffic control tower had informed the flight crew about “traffic.”

“I responded that we were looking,” the captain said. “We were unable to get a visual on the traffic however.”

A few minutes later, “Tower came back and she said it was less than a mile do we have it in sight [sic]. I only responded with no, as we were trying to find the traffic and Tower responded immediately to cancel approach clearance and to climb to 6000.”

Advisory issued when aircraft are 15-35 seconds from colliding

During the ascent, the airliner’s collision avoidance system issued a “resolution advisory” or RA, an urgent warning when two aircraft are 15 to 35 seconds from colliding without a change in course. The advisory instructed the crew to descend.

As the jet leveled off and began the descent, the captain looked out the first officer’s window and spotted the small, single-engine plane and its pilot, within eyesight, perpendicular to the airliner.

“It was slightly lower than us and also descending,” the captain reported. “I saw that our guidance was to continue to descend but using my own judgment of what I’m looking at visually I chose to say to the FO [first officer], no climb instead he’s below us [sic].”

As the jet ascended, the RA switched from descend to climb.

“We complied with the climbing RA guidance and safely maneuvered the aircraft away,”  the captain reported. “It was a difficult decision to change the aircraft path by starting a climb when the RA wanted us to descend. Especially because it is supposed to resolve the conflict. But after making visual contact with the aircraft I knew we needed to climb away from it.”

A synopsis of the event said the private plane “was crossing the [airliner’s] final approach course and not in communication with ATC [Air Traffic Control]. Captain took evasive action to avoid a collision.”

Tina Kinsey, a spokeswoman for the Asheville Airport, referred questions from The Watchdog to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA did not respond by deadline to questions, including whether the event was investigated and how close the planes came to a collision.  

Malmquist said resolution advisories are “really rare.” 

Airliners are equipped with airborne collision avoidance systems that serve as a “last resort” for preventing midair collisions by instructing pilots to perform evasive maneuvers, according to the FAA.

“It’ll first give you just a target advisory,” said Malmquist, a graduate lecturer at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla. “It’ll just say, ‘Traffic, traffic,’ and then just address your attention, be paying attention. And that’s already getting pretty close before it does that.

“And then, if it’s predicting collision,” he said, “it will command an immediate response, and response to that we’re trained is mandatory.”

Malmquist, an airline pilot since the 1980s, said he could recall receiving just one RA in all his flights.

“I mostly fly International,” he said. “I would expect airplanes that are flying domestically encounter it more often.”

He said the FAA may have investigated the incident if the private plane “was in the wrong spot.”

Close calls involving commercial airlines have been on the rise and are alarmingly common, occurring multiple times a week, often at or near major airports, a New York Times investigation found.

Frontline aviation workers, including pilots, air traffic controllers, mechanics and flight attendants, are encouraged to report incidents, including near-misses, to the NASA reporting database. The information is used for analysis and safety prevention and is scrubbed of identifying details before being made public. 

Four other near-misses have been reported around the Asheville airport since 2003, three involving private planes in close proximity to each other. In the fourth, the pilot of a commercial airliner landing at the airport in January 2023 reported “a drone about 100 ft. below us.”

“We alerted tower about the drone and subsequently had an uneventful landing,” the pilot reported. “The drone appeared to be a personal quadcopter that was not of commercial nature.”

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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