When Hurricane Helene swept through western North Carolina last September, it brought plenty of water but left safe water sources severely compromised: nearly five months later, the City of Asheville is still pumping chlorine into its system, and some homeowners with private wells may need to access testing to confirm the safety and drinkability of their water. With support from the REALTOR® Party’s Rural Outreach Grant program, the Land of the Sky Association of REALTORS® (LOTSAR) has been able to provide guidance and water test kits to its members.
Matthew Allen, LOTSAR’s Director of Professional Development & Government Affairs, explains that at the NAR NXT meetings last fall, when Asheville was still reeling from the storm’s destruction, he learned that the Rural Outreach Grant program could help the association in its efforts to reach its members and their networks with information about water safety. “We really appreciate that this funding was available. Rural properties in our region were hit especially hard by flooding and landslides. We applied right away and were able to hold a forum on post-hurricane water safety issues within about a month. The grant also enabled us to buy water testing kits that we distributed to the roughly forty members who attended; the rest we offered to the rest of the membership while supplies lasted.”
The initial hope, he notes, was to have representatives from Asheville’s Department of Water Services and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality speak at the event, but the timing was such that they were still in emergency mode; local elected officials were likewise invited but unable to attend, for the same reason. “People were still scrambling, but it was important to convey the help we could as soon as possible to our members, and by extension, to their communities,” says Allen, who arranged for three other professionals to share expert guidance on post-hurricane water-related real estate issues.
“It was all very informative,” he reports. “The inspector and plumber did a great job of sharing their knowledge about turbidity levels, which, at the time, were testing higher than acceptable by World Health Organization standards. In addition to concerns about E. coli, they covered the issue of high lead levels, as there were concerns that lead-based paint had been dredged up by the storm.” The third speaker was an attorney, who addressed legal issues like changed property lines and easements, and material fact disclosures. “Our audience had lots of questions and were really grateful to be equipped with all this information – and for the test kits,” says Allen.
The event was held midday, and included lunch, at LOTSAR’s free-standing event venue. There was time built in for networking, because Allen notes, as more and more happens on-line, it’s good to have in-person contact, and everyone had stories to share about the hurricane. In addition to the consumer-grade water test kits, LOTSAR received a grant from the North Carolina Association of REALTORS® that enabled them to offer professional testing to the first fifteen or so attendees who requested it.
Because there will continue to be questions about the water system for the foreseeable future, LOTSAR plans to offer a similar program again this year, this time bringing in the speakers who were unavailable in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, as well as a representative from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and, Allen hopes, a former LOTSAR member who, as an ecological economist, has developed a CE class on climate change issues in real estate.
To learn more about how the local REALTOR® association is working to help residents of the Asheville region face their water safety issues, contact Matthew Allen, Director of Professional Development & Government Affairs, at mallen@lotsar.org or 828.333.5840.
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