Answer Man: Asheville having electric bus woes? Reservoir water level OK? Will Speaker Mike Johnson be at local dinner?

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:

Question: Why is Asheville discontinuing their purchases of environmentally friendly buses like the four-year old electric vehicles, as well as the 13-year old hybrid buses this coming year with the traditional diesel buses that I thought the city was trying to get away from? And why don’t they look into natural gas as an alternative like some cities do? I just thought we were more progressive than this.

My answer: And here I thought Asheville’s buses ran on good vibes and spent hops.

Real answer: Electric buses aren’t working out so great for the city right now.

“The city currently has five Proterra Electric transit buses and uses them as frequently as possible,” city spokesperson Kim Miller said via email. “Four of our five electric transit buses, however, are currently out of service due to issues with obtaining parts from the company, which is in bankruptcy proceedings.”

Miller said Asheville is “not pursuing further purchases of electric buses from Proterra or any company until the industry has progressed and can meet the needs of the Asheville Rides Transit system in terms of range, reliability, and cost.”

The situation with hybrid buses is not a whole lot better.

“The city, unfortunately, has not been able to procure additional hybrid transit buses due to production being discontinued for 30-foot transit buses,” Miller said. “In other words, no company makes 30-foot hybrid transit buses anymore.”

The city is not giving up on more sustainable transit ideas, though.

“Staff plans to undertake a comprehensive analysis of operations, including evaluation of fleet options and routes within the next year to determine if other vehicle types may be beneficial to include in the fleet, including more sustainable options,” Miller said.

A lot of cities have found going electric or even hybrid with their bus fleets is trickier than it seems. A governing.com article from June titled, “The Rocky Road to Bus Electrification,” states: 

“Even with advances in electric vehicle technology and new federal support for electric buses, many public transit agencies are finding it difficult to transition their fleets at a major scale. The reasons why range from a lack of infrastructure to concerns about cost, reliability and range. Meanwhile, zero-emission vehicle technology continues to evolve, leaving open questions about which types of buses can best serve transit agencies’ service, climate and budgetary goals.”

“Many agencies don’t have the infrastructure in place to store, charge and repair large numbers of electric buses, and there are also questions about whether local utilities are prepared to supply all the power agencies need to keep buses charged. Other obstacles include the reliability of new models of buses and the relevant expertise of maintenance workers, along with scheduling challenges that may arise when buses need lots of time to charge.”

Canary media also ran an article in June, this one about the electric and hybrid bus industry being unable to keep up with demand, as the federal government has offered a lot of incentive dollars. That article states:

“For its part, the U.S. had about 5,480 battery-electric buses as of September 2022, a 66 percent increase from 12 months prior, according to Calstart, a nonprofit representing vehicle manufacturers, utilities, companies and government agencies on clean transportation policy. That’s still a fraction of the roughly 60,000 transit buses operated by more than 1,000 transit agencies across the country, however.”

Question: Will the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, be in attendance at the Charles Taylor Christmas Dinner? The ad makes it sound that way, but I’d be surprised if he’s here in town. So, will he be here in person?

My answer: Look, these Congress critters only get a month-long break for the holidays. You can’t expect them to be everywhere at once.

Real answer: The TV ads were a little misleading on this, I must say. So, to be clear, Speaker Johnson will not be in town for the Taylor dinner, which takes place Saturday evening at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Asheville.

Taylor, a Transylvania County Republican who served as western North Carolina’s congressional representative from 1991 through 2007, replied to me through an assistant.

“Considering what is happening in Washington, I would be surprised if the Speaker is able to attend the dinner in person,” said Taylor, 82. “He will, however, answer questions from the audience, if not in person, then by video.”

On a side note, I must say that Taylor’s age makes him a prime candidate to run for president.

Question: We’ve had an historic drought this year, and I’m told that the rainfall total this year is far below average for Asheville. Yet the City of Asheville has not imposed any water-saving measures. What is the water level like at the reservoir? Is it lower than normal? Is it far lower than normal?

My answer: Look, when the city needs you to conserve water — say over the holidays — it will just shut it off for a week or two.

Real answer: City of Asheville Water Resources Department spokesperson Clay Chandler got right to the point.

“Based on the attached drought model, the City of Asheville Water Resources Department does not anticipate having to implement consumption reduction measures for our customers,” he said via email.

North Fork, the city’s main reservoir, is considered at “full pool” when the water reaches a level of 2,601.49 feet above sea level,” Chandler said.

“Current elevation is 9.54 feet below that, or 2,591.95 feet above sea level,” Chandler said. “We gained 3.41 feet since our last rain event and expect that trend to continue as temperatures decrease and Super El Nino delivers expected rain.”

He sent over the department’s “Water Shortage Response Plan,” which details three levels of water shortage responses:

(1) Voluntary Reductions

(2) Mandatory Reductions

(3) Emergency Restrictions.

In phase one, “Water supply conditions indicate a potential for shortage. Water users are encouraged to reduce their water use and improve water use efficiency; however, no penalties apply for noncompliance.”

In phase two, conditions “conditions are significantly lower than the seasonal norm and water shortage conditions are expected to persist.”

In phase three, “Water supply conditions are substantially diminished and pose a imminent threat to human health or environmental integrity. Remaining water supplies must be allocated to preserve human health and environmental integrity.”

Clearly, the Asheville system didn’t reach those levels, and the nearly three inches of rain over the weekend helped ease the drought.

It’s also worth noting that according to the North Carolina state drought map on U.S. Drought Monitor, before the big rainfall last weekend, Buncombe County was split between “severe drought” in the southern part of the county and “moderate drought” in the northern end. For the most part, the lower half of the southernmost counties of Western North Carolina was in the red for “extreme drought.”

For instance, Henderson County’s southern section was in “extreme drought,” and its northern half in “severe.” 

So while it seemed bad in Buncombe County, the county was better off than several other counties.

The maps were updated this week and now have nearly all of Buncombe in “moderate drought,” while Henderson and the other southern counties are now completely in the “severe drought” category.

More rain forecast for Sunday should help even more.

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Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at  jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941.