Asheville Water Resources Department director to leave city after 9 years
Asheville Water Resources Department director to leave city after 9 years
Officials visit North Fork Reservoir for ‘All hands on deck’ approach
EPA Administrator Michael Regan on the efforts being made at the North Fork Reservoir in Black Mountain to restore water to the area.
ASHEVILLE — Water Resources Director David Melton is leaving his position with the city after nine years.
Melton, who came to the city in 2016, has accepted a job as water and wastewater director of the Water Service Department in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He will leave the city Aug. 1, according to a July 11 news release.
Melton said in the release it was an honor to serve with the city.
“I have never been associated with a team as talented and dedicated. We have had many successes and supported each other through challenges,” Melton said.
Asheville’s water system, which serves Buncombe County and the northern portion of Henderson County, has 160,000 customers, and interconnections with several towns and municipalities throughout its coverage area. Three water treatment plants feed the system: Mills River, William DeBruhl and North Fork. The latter two are near Swannanoa and Black Mountain, in eastern Buncombe.
The department maintains over 1,700 miles of water lines in the distribution system — enough miles of infrastructure enough to go from Asheville to Miami and back.
Melton headed the department through two recent water crises — the first over the 2022-23 holiday, after cold temperatures caused a number of system breaks, taking the Mills River Plant offline and leaving thousands without water for up to 10 days.
The second in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene, which caused catastrophic damage to the water system, wreaking havoc on critical infrastructure and churning up its reservoirs. It left the system without potable water for seven weeks.
Even months later, the department cautioned that the watershed and reservoirs are still extremely vulnerable to any moderate to severe weather events.
Melton’s annual salary is $152,778, according to a city database.
City Manager Debra Campbell said in the release she was grateful for Melton’s leadership, especially in the immediate aftermath of Helene.
“Restoring water service in the face of historic destruction required a massive response from Water Resources staff in coordination with partners in the public and private sector,” Campbell said.
“The plan David and his team put in place to make our water system as resilient as possible as quickly as possible will benefit the City for years to come. We wish him well as he begins a new chapter.”
An interim director will be named soon, followed by a selection process for a new permanent director, the release said.
“While I am excited to be closer to family in South Carolina, this was a difficult decision,” Melton said in the release. “I want to express my sincere gratitude for our staff’s hard work and commitment to serving our customers every day. They have made my time here truly great, and I wish each of them, and the City, continued success.”
Along with Helene response, the city pointed to other projects in which Melton was “instrumental:”
- Completing the auxiliary spillway at North Fork Water Treatment Plant that played a critical role in protecting the facility’s earthen dam during Helene.
- Ongoing, multi-phase upgrade of Mills River Water Treatment Plant that will eventually double its production capacity.
- Completing the Patton Avenue waterline project, in which 7,000 feet of new waterline was installed that will supply more water to the growing western portions of Asheville and Buncombe County.
More: Asheville assistant city manager, Helene recovery coordinator leaves city after 3 years
More: Water outages: Asheville chose to cut off the south from water; Melton made the call
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.