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<\/div>\nThey\u2019re piled on river banks, lodged in uprooted trees, embedded in sediment and jammed under logs. Many are tangled in mounds of debris up to two stories high.<\/p>\n
Two years after Hurricane Helene leveled forests, bulldozed houses and filled western North Carolina rivers with everything from cars to refrigerators, the work of cleaning up the debris goes on. Along the iconic French Broad River, known for its whitewater rapids, one item stands out from the rest: massive numbers of PVC pipes that washed away from a factory north of Asheville. As Hurricane Isaias<\/a>, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, intensifies, the PVC pipes are a reminder that damage can disrupt lives for years after a storm passes.<\/p>\n \u201cJust the amount of time and energy that we put into removing all this pipe is exhausting,\u201d said Jon Stamper, operations director at MountainTrue, the nonprofit conducting cleanup on several rivers affected by Helene. \u201cWe still have stretches of river that haven\u2019t been touched.\u201d<\/p>\n MountainTrue estimates its crews have pulled hundreds of thousands of pipes from the river \u2014 most of which went to landfills \u2014 with an untold number still littering the river for 70 miles (113 kilometers) to a large lake at the Tennessee border.<\/p>\n Canada-based IPEX would not say how many pipes were stored at its Woodfin, North Carolina, site before the storm or share results of a company-funded study of how much remains in the river, calling the information \u201ccommercially sensitive.\u201d Officials said 60% of pipes stored outdoors at the site, sandwiched between railroad tracks and the river, were swept away by the 2024 flood, but most were recovered fairly quickly.<\/p>\n The company acknowledged that the remaining debris is significant and has agreed to pay MountainTrue $500,000 toward continued cleanup on the French Broad, allowing the organization to continue working into next year.<\/p>\n A $10 million state grant awarded to MountainTrue in 2025 to clean up debris in several western North Carolina rivers that was set to expire in December has been extended to February. The organization said there\u2019s still a long way to go and estimates it has spent 50,000 work-hours and over $1.5 million on pipe removal, which is only in the French Broad.<\/p>\n PVC pipe comprises 80% of the debris in some areas, according to MountainTrue, posing risks to rafters and kayakers, changing water flow and altering the ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand the ongoing challenge,\u201d IPEX CEO Colleen Pritchett said. \u201cWe recognize that \u2026 recovery efforts are complex, they\u2019re resource-intensive, and it\u2019s constantly shaped by the river conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in late September 2024, dumping more than 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rain in some areas, triggering landslides, toppling trees, pushing buildings off their foundations and choking waterways.<\/p>\n At IPEX, an earthen berm was the only thing separating tall stacks of pipes from the French Broad River. Company officials said they expected a so-called 100-year flood \u2014 meaning it has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year \u2014 and moved pipes out of that flood zone.<\/p>\n But the flooding from Helene was 10 times worse.<\/p>\n \u201cWe secured the site as best we could, and we sent people home a day before the flooding was expected,\u201d said Johnny Drummond, vice president of manufacturing. He said the company did not anticipate a 1,000-year flood, which has a 1-in-1,000 chance of occurring.<\/p>\n The company closed the factory for a couple of months afterward, with losses \u201cwell over $100 million,\u201d Pritchett said. It has since invested over $100 million to repair and strengthen the buildings, and now is studying ways to contain the pipes in future floods \u2014 something MountainTrue publicly urged for months.<\/p>\n Though there\u2019s much more than IPEX debris still in the waterways, the pipes are so ubiquitous that \u201cthere are places where you go that it makes up almost everything that we remove,\u201d said Stamper, who formerly worked for a whitewater river outfitter and now oversees 10 cleanup crews totaling about 100 people \u2014 many of them former river or fishing guides who lost their livelihoods after the hurricane.<\/p>\n Removing the pipe is especially vexing because it binds with other debris and has become embedded in the river bottom, with fish and other creatures taking up residence inside. Stamper said he also worries about long-term environmental and health effects from the pipe, which can degrade and become brittle, leaving microplastics in the river.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to avoid that stuff sitting there forever and just slowly deteriorating and breaking into smaller and smaller pieces,\u201d Stamper said. \u201cSome of the pipe that\u2019s been sitting out since Hurricane Helene that has been exposed to the sun all the time is getting to the point where you could crack it when you grab it.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the pipes \u2014 both straight, rigid plastic and flexible coils that have unraveled \u2014 are under huge piles of tangled logs topped by other debris, often in mounds 20 feet (6 meters) high. Cleanup crews \u201cjust sort of picture it as a jungle gym\u201d that they must climb and balance on as they clear the pile, said Jemima Filiss-Cook, who leads the cleanup in Madison County, where most of the pipe is concentrated.<\/p>\n She said many crew members were already cleaning up the river before MountainTrue hired them, as a way of \u201ctrauma bonding\u201d over what had happened.<\/p>\n They include avid outdoorspeople, including rock climbers, because the cleanup is \u201cquite a tedious and technical process\u201d that requires comfort with the job\u2019s rigors, said Anna Alsobrook, MountainTrue\u2019s French Broad Riverkeeper.<\/p>\n Crews saw longer pipes into smaller chunks and load them on a boat, which is taken downstream to a landing spot and loaded onto a truck. Almost all of the pipes go to a landfill, though some in good condition are given to community members because there are no good recycling options, MountainTrue said.<\/p>\n \u201cI truly don\u2019t think anybody else could do this work except for our debris team members,\u201d Alsobrook said, noting they must be able to navigate whitewater rapids with a boat full of pipes and saws.<\/p>\n The first priority was removing pipes that could pose an immediate danger or entrapment hazard to tubers or kayakers, and much of the remaining debris stranded in flood plains and on banks, especially around riverbends and corners, and vulnerable to being washed away in another flood, Stamper said.<\/p>\n It becomes apparent many pipes are still in the river whenever water levels change, he said.<\/p>\n MountainTrue is applying for other grants to help extend its program after state and IPEX funding run out, Stamper said, because it could take years to remove all the debris.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to do our best as long as the funding allows,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s going to be pipe out there that we can\u2019t get ever.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.<\/em><\/p>\n Photo: PVC pipe cleared from the riverbank is dumped at MountainTrue headquarters in July 22 in Alexander. (AP Photo\/Allison Joyce)<\/em><\/p>\n ___<\/em><\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Topics<\/span> North Carolina<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nThe Epic Flood Took Everyone by Surprise<\/h4>\n
Removing pipes is tedious, sometimes dangerous<\/h4>\n