Water

Goal Overview:

Ensure safe and reliable drinking water supply for all Hendersonville citizens; Preserve and protect natural aquatic resources affected by actions under the jurisdiction of the City of Hendersonville; Identify and address community flood hazards and reduce infrastructure vulnerability to flood hazards; See below for actions taken to reach our goal:

Policies

Resolution 17-0966; Sustainable Stormwater Initiative       Resolution 08-1166; Mills River Watershed Protection
Resolution R-22-59; French Broad River Partnership         Resolution 20-0433; Surface Water Quality Improvements
Resolution 19-0416; Water Shortage Response Plan

Stormwater

According to the EPA, stormwater runoff is the number one impairment to surface water quality in the US today. The City of Hendersonville’s Stormwater Division implements a wide variety of sustainability initiatives including the City’s rain barrel program, storm drain marking, stream clean-ups and community floodplain restoration projects. Program sustainability successes include:

• 2023, received nearly 3.5 million dollars in grant funds to implement water quality improvement projects
• Initiated the City’s Trash Trout Program which has removed over 10,000 lbs. of trash from local waterways; it was the first of its kind and based on its success, there are now 35 trash trouts across five states.
• City’s “stormwater stroll” as a tool to educate the community on stormwater treatment practices, and volunteering with girl scouts and boy scouts leading to a rain garden installation at a local elementary school and water quality murals on rainwater cisterns in Patton Park.

Water & Sewer

Access to reliable and safe drinking water is imperative the quality of life for our residents. The City of Hendersonville’s Water & Sewer Department takes strong measures to provide drinking water and sewer services while minimizing environmental impacts and reducing water use. Department sustainability successes include:

• AquaHawk Alerting, This free app is available to customers to track water usage. This allows customers to set thresholds for their usage and will alert them when these thresholds are exceeded or when water usage is continuous, thus signaling to the customer that they may have a leak. City staff also monitors this program for leaks and notifies customers of a potential leak.
• Multiple streambank restoration projects completed in 2016 and 2021 which improves sanitary sewer infrastructure while improving stream riparian buffer and erosion mitigation.
• Multiple pump stations replaced with more efficient larger pump station and storage tank that also decreases the amount of individual pump stations needed.