During the water crisis caused by Hurricane Helene last year, a lot of people became so-called ‘‘water nerds,’ mastering new terms like ‘turbidity’ and ‘coagulation’ to better understand why our taps ran dry for weeks after the storm.
You could call Mike Holcombe, a former water resources director for the City of Asheville, the King of Water Nerds. He just published a book on the history of Asheville’s water system, called “The Story of Asheville’s Water: Before and Beyond Hurricane Helene.”
BPR’s Laura Hackett sat down with Holcombe to discuss his new book, which takes readers from the original freshwater springs that locals drank from to the modern-day system that’s navigating the how to be more resilient for future floods…