When will railroad tracks get repaired here? Why so many water alerts? What type of clay is causing the turbidity problem? Could the city directly pipe the clear streams nearby? • Asheville Watchdog
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:
Question: Will Norfolk & Southern repair their tracks? It’s such a sleepy industry, they may not be able to get a return on the investment. Rails to trails?
My answer: When it comes to repairs, I feel like Norfolk Southern is saying more, “I think I can, I think I can,” rather than, “Yeah, these tracks are toast. Time for rails to trails.”
Real answer: Norfolk Southern owns a lot of our tracks around here. Company spokesperson Heather L. Garcia provided the company’s update on Helene recovery.
“The short version is our track in and out of Asheville is expected to be out for at least another three months,” Garcia said.
The track is still used quite a bit, although Norfolk Southern does consider it “secondary” track, not part of its mainline operations.
“Essentially, that means most of the traffic on that track is local (as opposed to through traffic), serving customers that are shipping goods out or bringing products in,” Garcia said. “Coal, forest and consumer categories make up more than half of the traffic in that area normally.”
In that update, Norfolk Southern said all of its “core routes were open within 72 hours of the hurricane making landfall.” The railroad has 19,500 miles of track in 22 states, mostly in the East.
Norfolk Southern said it has discovered 21,500 feet of railroad track that washed out from Tropical Storm Helene, and more than 50,000 feet of track damaged by scouring. Some of the worst damage was in the Asheville area. // Photo provided by Norfolk Southern.
“Norfolk Southern’s Engineering team cleared over 15,000 trees, repaired multiple washouts and over 50 damaged slide fences, deployed 400-plus generators, and safely operated in more than 1,000 locations without commercial power,” the update stated.
The update notes that the Asheville region was hard hit.
“In the hardest hit areas, along Norfolk Southern’s AS Line, which runs from Salisbury, N.C to Morristown, Tenn., crossing the Eastern Continental Divide through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Asheville, N.C., initial damage assessments discovered 21,500 feet of track washed out, more than 50,000 feet of track damaged by scour, over 15,000 feet of fill failures and slides, and multiple bridges damaged,” Norfolk Southern stated. “Engineering teams reopened the AS Line between Salisbury, N.C. and Old Fort, N.C., as well as between Newport, Tennessee and Morristown, Tennessee, Oct. 9, working, in some cases, without access to public roadways.”
Because of the remoteness and mountain topography, along with storm flooding, “Norfolk Southern teams have had difficulty assessing damage along portions of the line around Asheville and over Black Mountain, where much track has been completely destroyed,” the company stated.
This map shows the status of the Norfolk Southern AS Line, which runs from Morristown, Tennessee, to Salisbury, North Carolina. “Initial projections estimate Norfolk Southern’s line between Asheville and Newport will reopen by late January 2025,” according to the company’s update. // Credit: Norfolk Southern
“Initial projections estimate Norfolk Southern’s line between Asheville and Newport will reopen by late January 2025,” the update continued. “Evaluations of the track between Asheville and Old Fort are ongoing.”
Blue Ridge Southern Railway, under its parent company, Watco, also operates tracks in our area, running from East Flat Rock up to Asheville, and then west to Dillsboro. The “WAMX” locomotives you often see around here, which stand for Webb Asset Management, are part of the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad.
The Blue Ridge Southern line consists of 87.83 miles of track, according to Watco spokesperson Tracie VanBecelaere.
“The Blue Ridge Southern Railroad is working to restore the line to resume service to our customers,” VanBecelaere said via email. “We do not have an exact timeline right now on when work will be completed, but hopefully in a similar timeframe as Norfolk Southern.”
As far as any potential transitioning of tracks to pedestrian/cycling trails, that’s not happening.
“There is no discussion of trail projects resulting from the storm,” VanBecelaere said.
Question: I appreciate the city being responsive during this crisis, but do they really need to send out so many alerts about the water? It’s starting to drive me crazy.
My answer: Alert! Alert! Alert! An Alert answer is coming. Hey, I just wanted to warn you.
Real answer: Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell broached this subject at the Oct. 21 daily Helene briefing. In short, the city must issue these notices.
“We’ve heard a lot, and a lot of it were mostly complaints that there’s been some frustration with the daily AVL alert messages going out to Asheville water customers as we continue to bring the entire water system back online,” Campbell said. “These daily boil water notices are required by the Environmental Protection Agency.”
“As long as we are under a boil water notice, we appreciate your understanding of the necessity of these critical messages,” Campbell continued. “These alerts are sent in both English and Spanish to ensure we reach as many members of our community as possible.”
Asheville has restored water to nearly all its customers, but the water is not filtered, and it’s heavily chlorinated and can have a light brown appearance. This stems from stubborn suspended clay particles remaining in the city’s main drinking water source, North Fork Reservoir in Black Mountain.
Question: (Note: Two readers asked about the turbidity issue at North Fork Reservoir. I’m summarizing their questions here). One guy said he filtered the city water through three towels, and it still came through with a brownish color, and yet there seemed to be no residue left behind on the towels. This indicated to him that the particles in question are incredibly fine. Along those lines, another guy, with experience in pottery, asked if the type of clay in the reservoir might be something called “terra sigillata.” Apparently, this is a fine clay used to create a smooth, lustrous coating on ceramic pieces, according to Google. His point is that it is a very, very fine clay and stays in suspension for a long time. He wanted more specifics on the suspended clay the city is dealing with, other than just generic clay. Also, he asked if the curtains to be installed are effective on very fine clay particles. And, how small a particle can they filter?
My answer: I’ve yet to hear the city’s water spokesperson, Clay Chandler, acknowledge the awkwardness of being named “Clay” these days, but I suspect that’s coming. I also suspect he’s already had some people blame him personally for muddying the waters.
Real answer: Chandler said the particles in North Fork that are causing the murkiness, technically called turbidity, are “very fine clay particles and generally require a coagulant to remove.
Normally clear, the North Fork Reservoir now suffers from murkiness, otherwise known as turbidity. // Photo provided by the City of Asheville
“A towel is porous, with those pores being large enough that they would most likely be unable to trap or contain those particular particles,” Chandler said via email. “Our personnel have not identified the specific clay particle, and use that term generically to describe many variations.”
They clearly have looked at this clay up close and personal, though.
“We do know that these particles are small, flat, plate-like structures, with a negative charge, and they act as opposing magnets, which keeps them suspended in the reservoir,” Chandler said.
Regarding the turbidity curtains, which the city is installing this week, they “are impervious in areas, but are mostly intended to create a stilling zone to allow flocculation and mass building, which we hope will help these particles sink,” Chandler said.
Flocculation is a fancy way to describe a process that causes small particles in a liquid to clump together into larger clusters called flocs. Hey, that’s what Google AI tells me.
Floc away, Asheville!
Question: As the feeder streams to North Fork have cleared, has the city explored the possibility, maybe in conjunction with the Corps of Engineers, of directly piping the stream water into the treatment facility, essentially bypassing the lake? Is this possible? Too complex?
My answer: At this point, I think the city has explored every possible solution to restoring potable water to its citizens, including buying gigantic tanks of hydrogen and oxygen and leaving them in a room overnight, hoping some magic occurs.
Real answer: This would probably be too complicated to seriously consider.
“Lot of problems to solve,” Chandler said. “None of those feeder streams are very deep, so you’d run into the capacity issue there, too. Also, they’re all in the middle of thick forest, and getting what would likely require a few miles of connected pipe laid and stabilized would take a significant amount of time.”
Also, the terrain provides no good place to set up dozens of pumps and other equipment that would be required to make this work.
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/.
SUMMARY: Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin is contesting over 60,000 votes in his race against Democratic Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, claiming registration and ID deficiencies. A 2-1 NC Court of Appeals ruling, with Republican judges siding with Griffin, allows voters 15 business days to correct issues. Riggs, leading by 734 votes after two recounts, vowed to appeal, warning the ruling threatens over 65,000 lawful votes. Griffin also challenges military and overseas ballots. The GOP praised the decision; Democrats condemned it as partisan. The state Supreme Court, with a 5-2 Republican majority, will likely hear the appeal. Riggs has recused herself.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-04 13:39:00
(The Center Square) – Two of three judges on a North Carolina appellate decision say Republican Jefferson Griffin’s appeal has merit and ordered the State Board of Elections to recalculate the nation’s only unresolved election from Nov. 5.
On the 151st day since Election Day, the North Carolina Supreme Court Seat 6 race – an eight-year term seat – has yet to be decided. Friday’s announced decision, from oral arguments two weeks ago, gives 15 business days after notice for missing data in registration records of voters to be filled in, and overseas voters not providing photo identification as required by law to do so.
The voters who never lived in North Carolina are to be dropped from the totals.
Those instructions – Justices John Tyson and Fred Gore supported the ruling, Tobias Hampson dissented – could be appealed. And, it doesn’t give a clear indication if Griffin or Judge Allison Riggs will be the winner.
Riggs, the Democrat and incumbent on the bench after appointment by then-Gov. Roy Cooper, has been poised for a 734-vote triumph as the litigation saga plays out in multiple lawsuits and in both state and federal courtrooms. Griffin, a state appellate judge, has appealed every decision against him.
On Election Night, with 2,658 precincts reporting, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes of 5,540,090 cast. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were added to the totals since, swinging the race by 10,585 votes.
The majority opinion read in part, regarding equal terms and fundamental rights in free elections, “This right is violated when ‘votes are not accurately counted (because) (unlawful) () ballots are included in the election results’ The inclusion of even one unlawful ballot in a vote total dilutes the lawful votes and ‘effectively ‘disenfranchises’’ lawful voters.”
The majority opinion is covered in the first 36 pages of the ruling; Hampson’s dissent is in the final 30 pages.
Anderson Clayton, chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, has called the win “decisive.” Jason Simmons, chairman of the North Carolina GOP, said earlier votes in question are “blatant violations of state law.”
In response to Friday’s announcement, Clayton said the court put party affiliation above the rights of North Carolina voters.” Simmons said, “Today’s decision confirms the facts were on Judge Griffin’s side. This a victory for the rule of law and election integrity.”
The state elections board, majority 3-2 Democrats, and Riggs have been aligned in the litigations.
The Supreme Court bench has historically been nonpartisan and partisan, and since going back to the latter, was 6-1 Democrats in 2019. It is 5-2 Republicans today.
The state Supreme Court calendar has already begun, with Riggs still in place until the election is decided. She has been recused from any proceedings involving the election. Similarly, Griffin has not been involved in any at the appellate level.
Griffin protested about 65,000 ballots on multiple counts, and the state board rejected all of them. Most were by 3-2 party-line votes.
The protests the state board denied included registration records of voters, such as lack of providing either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. State law for that has been in place two decades, dating to 2004.
Other ballots protested and denied by the state board included voters overseas who have never lived in the United States, and for lack of photo identification provided with military and overseas voters.
by Sarah Michels, Carolina Public Press April 4, 2025
RALEIGH — Juliet Rosa, a survivor of domestic violence and UNC-Chapel Hill student, is “a little bit overwhelmed” by this session’s plethora of gun bills, which include so-called constitutional carry legislation, sentence enhancements for crimes involving firearms and a measure proposing North Carolina as a Second Amendment sanctuary state.
If North Carolina lawmakers pass these bills, Rosa may just pack her bags and leave.
Gun bills aren’t novel in North Carolina, but there weren’t too many major changes until 2023. That’s when lawmakers narrowly repealed a century-old pistol purchase permit requirement over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, said state Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford.
This year, several Republican lawmakers want to continue the trend and allow North Carolinians to carry hidden handguns without a permit, too. While they’re at it, they plan to lower the minimum age to carry from 21 to 18.
If signed into law, North Carolinians would no longer have to take an eight-hour gun safety course, provide a local sheriff a set of fingerprints or demonstrate an ability to shoot a gun before being allowed to carry a concealed weapon.
Stronger gun rights bills have progressed this session despite public and private opposition. Relative quiet from law enforcement groups, lobbying pressure and national politics may be to blame.
The fate of these bills, following a likely veto from Gov. Josh Stein, is uncertain.
But over a dozen Democrat amendments and bills seeking to add safety measures to these bills have failed, hinting at a possible rerun of the pistol permit playbook, which involved strategic absences to give Republicans enough votes to override vetoes on their own.
From pistol permit to constitutional carry
On March 29, 2023, Harrison said Democratic state Reps. Cecil Brockman and Michael Wray “made themselves absent” for a key vote — the veto override of Senate Bill 41, which repealed the requirement to get a pistol-purchase permit from a sheriff before buying or transferring a firearm.
Without their votes, the state House was able to override Cooper’s veto with only Republican support.
“It was very frustrating for us to watch that happen,” Harrison said.
The National Rifle Association and a group called Grassroots North Carolina had been lobbying for the bill’s passage for years. Before 2023, they always hit a roadblock, Harrison said. North Carolina’s sheriff and law enforcement agencies would reliably push back, and lawmakers would heed their warnings.
But in recent years, that obstacle disappeared. The sheriff’s association became more partisan along urban-rural lines and law enforcement got quieter, Harrison recounted.
She’s worried history might repeat itself with this session’s gun legislation.
Under the gun
Between 2022 and 2023, only four states experienced an increase in gun sales: Illinois, New Hampshire and Florida had minimal increases of 1 to 5%.
North Carolina, however, had a 112% increase — by far the biggest surge, according to one analysis. That increase can be traced back to the pistol purchase permit law.
Everytown for Gun Safety policy expert Sam Levy sees that as a sign of what’s to come.
Everytown for Gun Safety is a nonprofit representing gun violence survivors. Last election cycle, they made over $7 million in political contributions and almost cracked the top 100 of contributors nationwide, according to Open Secrets. That included a $500,000 donation to the North Carolina Democratic Leadership fund.
“There’s no question in my mind that repealing the concealed-carry permit will have a similar sort of result, which is a huge spike in the number of guns being carried in public in North Carolina,” he said.
Chet Effler, the president of theNorth Carolina Fraternal Order of Police, told Carolina Public Press in a statement that the organization hadn’t reviewed or researched the session’s gun bills. Instead, Effler said the focus was on “law enforcement specific bills” for now.
Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe said in a statement that his office is actively monitoring this legislation and “will continue to work with lawmakers to advocate for policies that prioritize the well-being of our community and law enforcement officers.”
Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said he has a rule: Don’t talk about bills until they become law. He doesn’t want to endorse something that may change into something entirely different.
But public safety officers’ relative silence hasn’t stopped lawmakers from speaking on their behalf.
Mecklenburg Democratic state Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, for one, is convinced that removing concealed-carry permit requirements will make it harder for police to do their jobs, since those carrying weapons may or may not have much training or experience with guns.
“You’re going to kill police officers with this bill,” Mohammed said during a March committee meeting.
Republican state Sen. Danny Earl Britt Jr., the bill’s sponsor, replied that no law enforcement agency had come forward with that concern.
“I firmly believe that good people with guns stop bad people with guns,” Britt said.
Current law states that to obtain a mandatory concealed-carry permit, a person must complete an application under oath at a sheriff’s office, provide two full sets of fingerprints, complete an approved handgun safety course, allow a local sheriff access to records about an applicant’s mental health or capacity and pay an $80 fee. North Carolinians have to be 21 or older to get a permit.
The training requirement to obtain a permit involves a Saturday morning and afternoon and firing the weapon roughly20 to 30 times, Britt said.
“We’re not talking about a robust training program that people go through,” he said. “The training aspect is minimal, at most, and the idea that you have to go through that process we believe goes against everything in the Second Amendment.”
Both the Senate and House versions of the constitutional carry bill are in the House, waiting for the Rules Committee to take further action.
Is the Second Amendment limited?
In 2008, the Supreme Court decided in the D.C. v. Heller case that the Second Amendment protects individuals’ rights to keep and bear arms for self-defense and other lawful uses, Campbell University constitutional law professor Gregory Wallace said.
But it didn’t grant an absolute right.
Nobody could carry any type of firearm, anywhere at any time. Certain people, like convicted felons, couldn’t have a firearm. Certain places, like courthouses and schools, were off-limits. So were military-style weapons too dangerous for civilians. And the court made space for reasonable restrictions on buying and selling firearms.
In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law that would have made gun owners provide a special reason to carry a concealed firearm in public. The majority opinion stated that for a gun restriction to be permissible, there has to be a historical parallel. The government has to prove that the law is consistent with the nation’s history and tradition of firearms regulations, Wallace said.
“It’s not just black and white,” he said. “It’s a bit complicated.”
Levy said Everytown for Gun Safety’s work is about striking a balance between respecting the right to carry guns and public safety. That balance is often found in responsibility, and understanding the risks and rules surrounding gun ownership, he added.
Democrats have filed dozens of gun-related bills and amendments this session attempting to strike that balance.
They include bills that would make it a crime to leave a firearm in an unlocked, unattended vehicle, require gun owners to report loss or theft of their firearm to local law enforcement within 24 hours and establish “protective orders” to temporarily remove guns from people if they are a danger to themselves or others.
But in the North Carolina legislature, giving a little may be seen as a slippery slope.
None of these Democrat-led efforts have gotten much traction.
“I think there are folks in the Republican caucus who think maybe this isn’t a great idea to have 18-year-olds running around with no training carrying concealed weapons,” Harrison said. “I myself have heard from gun shop owners who are opposed to the bill, even though it makes more business for them, because they think it’s dangerous.”
Brian Sisson, owner of The Range in Ballantyne, is one of those owners. Sisson has noticed delays in getting concealed-carry permits, but he doesn’t think the solution is removing the requirement. Instead, he suggested getting permits “out of the sheriff’s hands” and allowing instructors to run background checks after applicants pass the training course.
“I have concerns that you’re potentially going to have individuals out there who are carrying firearms who don’t know what the law is,” Sisson said.
‘Idiotic and dangerous’
In August 2023, UNC-Chapel Hill went on lockdown for hours. The university’s alert system notified students of an active shooter, who it was later revealed had killed a professor.
The experience pushed Rosa to get involved with Students Demand Action. But Rosa and her peers mostly saw an increase in police presence on campus, which didn’t make them feel more at ease.
“We didn’t really see much meaningful change occur after that to make the campus safer,” Rosa said.
Students Demand Action asked UNC-Chapel Hill to create a translation option for the university alert system after discovering some Spanish-speaking employees worked through lockdown, not realizing they were in danger. The school has been slow to act, Rosa said.
Now, Rosa is seeing the same kind of behavior from the North Carolina legislature, which won’t give Democratic amendments — which include safe firearm storage requirements, extreme risk protection orders and gun-free zones at voting sites, domestic violence and homeless shelters and health care facilities — much attention.
“I know that the issue of gun violence, just from a policy standpoint, can be pretty complex and contentious, but the idea that these permitless carry bills like (Senate Bill 50 and House Bill 5) are the solutions is pretty idiotic and dangerous,” Rosa said.
Survey says
Public opinion on removing concealed-carry permit requirements is fairly low, according to a March survey of about 600 likely voters.
A Cygnal survey found that 56% of respondents did not want North Carolina to allow permitless carry. An additional 17% would allow it, but with some restrictions.
Former Republican majority leader Paul Stam said groups like Grassroots North Carolina tried to put pressure on him to pass gun rights legislation, once calling him and two of his peers “the three weasels” and vowing to “exact retribution” on them for a vote the group didn’t like. It was an empty threat at the time, and the real power was the National Rifle Association, Stam said.
But in 2021, the NRA filed for bankruptcy and hasn’t contributed to North Carolina legislative races since 2022, according to campaign finance records.
“I’m sure the constitutional carry thing is coming from lobbyists, but I don’t really know who they are,” Stam said.
State Rep. Tracy Clark, D-Guilford,has noticed some mail from smaller gun rights groups that say they are tracking her voting record, but nothing too serious.
“I do think that this is a very small minority of Second Amendment rights legislators,” she said.
She thinks the NRA still has somewhat of a hold on some lawmakers. Clark’s a Second Amendment supporter; her husband is a gun owner. She isn’t trying to take anyone’s guns; she wants to prevent future gun violence. But while she’s tried to meet Republicans from that angle, she’s had little success.
But that inability to hold a productive conversation across the aisle could change as the NRA diminishes, Clark said.
“It’s breaking through that barrier to make them realize that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing,” she said.
Other gun bills
The North Carolina Firearms Coalition sent an email to supporters last week about a recent bill: The Second Amendment Protection Act.
The measure would bar state and local law enforcement from enforcing federal restrictions on gun rights.
“We don’t know who’ll sit in the White House after Trump,” the email read. “We don’t know when the next anti-gun tyrant will seize power. That’s why we must strike NOW and pass the Second Amendment Protection Act in North Carolina — before it’s too late!”
If enacted, North Carolina would be a Second Amendment sanctuary state, similar to cities that don’t enforce federal immigration law.
The bill enhances sentences for possessing, brandishing or discharging a firearm while attempting or committing a felony. Several other bills under consideration this session also increase punishments for crimes involving guns.
“It had nothing to do with prevention,” Clark said. “So the title was a misnomer, and it was actually the same title of a bill Pricey (Harrison) and others have been filing for prior years of actual preventative measures.”
During a committee hearing, Balkcom said her bill would target repeat offenders and create “stronger accountability.”
Research shows sentence enhancements don’t work to deter gun violence, said Levy, the Everytown for Gun Safety policy expert. But talking about the need to be “tougher on criminals” and “lock them up” are common refrains from people who “don’t want to have real conversations” about the issue, he said.
“It’s a distraction,” Levy said. “It’s not a real solution.”
