Buncombe County river still littered with PVC pipes after Helene

White PVC pipe was still visible in the French Broad River as residents, officials and advocates gathered in Woodfin to confront a problem that has not gone away 18 months after Helene flooded the IPEX plastic plant. The most visible reminder is still the same: 10-foot white pipes lodged in trees, islands and riverbeds from Asheville downstream past Hot Springs.

MountainTrue said in an April 24 appeal that close to half of the debris its crews recover downstream of the IPEX plant is IPEX-branded PVC pipe. The group said thousands of pipes washed off the company’s property during Hurricane Helene and traveled miles downstream, with some reaching Tennessee. That scale has turned the river into a long-running accountability issue, not just a cleanup task.

The concern is now public and organized. On May 12, people gathered at Riverside Rhapsody Beer Company in Asheville for “The French Broad Pipe Problem: a call for public action,” and the next day BPR reported on the continuing debris problem in Woodfin. The discussion centered on what remains in the water, what has been removed, and why so much of the burden still falls on river advocates and volunteer cleanup crews.

The stakes are not abstract. French Broad River debris can create artificial dams and safety hazards for boats, and the river corridor supports recreation, scenery and tourism for Asheville, Woodfin and the wider Buncombe County economy. One Asheville tubing company, which normally serves about 40,000 guests in the summer, cut service on part of the French Broad after Helene. A polluted river also risks weakening confidence among rafters, tubers, fishing guides and visitors who help drive the outdoor economy.

Cleanup work has been substantial, but it has also underscored how much still remains. MountainTrue’s March 2026 report said crews removed 203,728 pounds of flood debris from the French Broad between Redmon Dam and Stackhouse Boat Launch over about 10 whitewater miles and 16 months. The group’s Clean Up WNC Rivers program, run with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, says paid crews will keep working through December 31, 2026 across 25 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians territory.

That leaves a central question for Buncombe County: how long the French Broad will keep carrying the visible fallout of Helene, and whether the remaining pipe will be removed by the company tied to the debris or by the public that has already spent months pulling it out.