They are piled high on eroding river banks, lodged precariously inside the root systems of uprooted trees, deeply embedded in riverbed sediment, and jammed tightly beneath massive logs. Many are tangled in sprawling mounds of organic and synthetic debris reaching up to two stories high, creating a surreal landscape along some of the region’s most beloved waterways.

Two years after the catastrophic fury of Hurricane Helene leveled entire forests, bulldozed residential neighborhoods, and filled western North Carolina rivers with everything from submerged automobiles to household refrigerators, the monumental work of cleaning up the debris goes on. Along the iconic French Broad River, a waterway internationally celebrated for its fierce and challenging whitewater rapids, one particular item stands out starkly from the rest of the wreckage: massive quantities of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes that washed away from a major manufacturing facility located just north of Asheville.

As the Atlantic hurricane season intensifies—marked by storms like Hurricane Isaias—these omnipresent PVC pipes serve as a persistent, physical reminder that the devastating impact of a major weather event can disrupt local lives, economies, and ecosystems for years after the storm has passed and the floodwaters have receded.

"Just the amount of time and energy that we put into removing all this pipe is exhausting," said Jon Stamper, operations director at MountainTrue, the prominent regional environmental nonprofit that has been spearheading cleanup efforts across several rivers severely affected by Helene. "We still have stretches of river that haven’t been touched."

MountainTrue estimates that its dedicated field crews have pulled hundreds of thousands of individual pipes from the river system, the vast majority of which have had to be hauled away to regional landfills. Yet, an untold number of pipes still litter the riverbanks and channel for a staggering 70 miles, stretching all the way downstream to a large lake situated near the Tennessee border.

IPEX, the Canada-based manufacturer that owned the facility, has declined to disclose exactly how many pipes were stored at its Woodfin, North Carolina, site prior to the storm. The company has also withheld the results of a company-funded study assessing how much of its inventory remains trapped within the river ecosystem, citing the information as "commercially sensitive." Local and company officials have noted that roughly 60 percent of the PVC pipes stored outdoors at the site—which is precariously sandwiched between active railroad tracks and the swift-moving river—were swept away by the historic 2024 flood, though a significant portion of those were recovered relatively quickly in the immediate aftermath.

The company has formally acknowledged that the remaining environmental debris is substantial. Consequently, IPEX has agreed to provide MountainTrue with $500,000 in funding to support ongoing cleanup operations along the French Broad River, a financial contribution that will allow the nonprofit organization to continue its grueling labor into the next year.

Meanwhile, a $10 million state grant originally awarded to MountainTrue in 2025 to assist with comprehensive debris removal across several western North Carolina rivers—which was originally scheduled to expire in December—has been officially extended through February. Despite these infusions of capital, organization leaders emphasize that there is still a long way to go. MountainTrue estimates that it has already expended approximately 50,000 work-hours and over $1.5 million strictly on pipe removal along the French Broad River alone.

According to MountainTrue field assessments, PVC pipe comprises up to 80 percent of the total debris found in certain heavily impacted areas. The presence of this material poses distinct hazards to commercial rafters and recreational kayakers, alters natural water flows, and fundamentally modifies the aquatic ecosystem.

"We understand the ongoing challenge," said IPEX CEO Colleen Pritchett. "We recognize that recovery efforts are complex, they’re resource-intensive, and it’s constantly shaped by the river conditions."

The Epic Flood Took Everyone by Surprise

Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina in late September 2024, unleashing an extraordinary deluge that dumped more than 30 inches of rain in some elevated areas. The resulting catastrophe triggered catastrophic landslides, toppled millions of trees, pushed heavy commercial and residential buildings completely off their foundations, and choked local waterways with a dense mixture of natural and man-made debris.

At the IPEX manufacturing facility, a protective earthen berm stood as the sole physical barrier separating towering stacks of PVC pipes from the rushing waters of the French Broad River. Company representatives stated that they had engineered their safety protocols around the threat of a so-called 100-year flood—a meteorological event carrying a 1% statistical chance of occurring in any given year—and had actively moved vulnerable pipes out of the designated flood zone before the storm made landfall.

However, the catastrophic flooding brought by Hurricane Helene defied historical models, proving to be ten times worse than a standard 100-year event.

"We secured the site as best we could, and we sent people home a day before the flooding was expected," said Johnny Drummond, vice president of manufacturing for the company. He noted that leadership simply did not anticipate a 1,000-year flood, an extreme event carrying a 1-in-1,000 chance of occurrence in any given year.

The company was forced to shutter its manufacturing factory for several months following the disaster, incurring financial losses that CEO Colleen Pritchett described as "well over $100 million." In the time since, IPEX has invested more than $100 million to repair and structurally strengthen its facilities. The corporation is now actively studying engineering solutions to better contain its inventory of pipes during potential future floods—a mitigation step that MountainTrue had publicly urged the company to take for months.

Although a vast array of miscellaneous debris unrelated to IPEX remains scattered throughout the waterways, the PVC pipes are so ubiquitous that they define the cleanup experience.

"There are places where you go that it makes up almost everything that we remove," said Stamper, who previously worked as a whitewater river outfitter. Today, he oversees a dedicated network of 10 cleanup crews totaling approximately 100 people. Many of these workers are former river guides or commercial fishing guides who tragically lost their traditional livelihoods when the hurricane devastated the region’s outdoor recreation economy.

Extracting the heavy plastic pipe is an exceptionally vexing challenge because the material frequently binds tightly with other types of flood debris. Over the past two years, the pipes have become deeply embedded in the shifting river bottom, where local fish and other aquatic creatures have begun taking up residence inside the hollow tubes.

Stamper also expressed growing concern regarding the long-term environmental and public health effects of the plastic. Over time, exposure to the elements causes PVC to degrade and become brittle, eventually shedding microplastics directly into the river system.

"We want to avoid that stuff sitting there forever and just slowly deteriorating and breaking into smaller and smaller pieces," Stamper explained. "Some of the pipe that’s been sitting out since Hurricane Helene that has been exposed to the sun all the time is getting to the point where you could crack it when you grab it."

Removing Pipes Is Tedious, Sometimes Dangerous

The physical nature of the work is as hazardous as it is exhausting. Some of the PVC inventory—consisting of both straight, rigid plastic pipes and flexible coils that have completely unraveled—lies trapped beneath massive, tangled piles of uprooted timber and other wreckage, frequently forming towering mounds up to 20 feet high.

Cleanup crews treat these unstable structures "just sort of picture it as a jungle gym" that they are forced to climb, navigate, and balance upon while utilizing specialized tools to dismantle the pile, according to Jemima Filiss-Cook, who leads the cleanup operations in Madison County, where the vast majority of the pipe contamination is concentrated.

She noted that many of the crew members were already volunteering to clean up the river independently before MountainTrue officially hired them, finding a sense of community and purpose through what she described as "trauma bonding" over the shared tragedy of the disaster.

The workforce includes a high concentration of avid outdoorspeople, including experienced rock climbers, because the cleanup is "quite a tedious and technical process" that requires a high degree of physical fitness and absolute comfort with the inherent rigors of the job, said Anna Alsobrook, MountainTrue’s designated French Broad Riverkeeper.

Crews must manually saw longer sections of rigid pipe into smaller, manageable chunks before loading them onto small boats. These watercraft are then navigated down the river to designated landing points, where the plastic is transferred onto heavy trucks. Almost all of the collected pipe is transported directly to regional landfills, though a small fraction of the material found in relatively good condition is distributed to local community members for creative reuse, as viable commercial recycling options for the damaged PVC remain extremely limited.

"I truly don’t think anybody else could do this work except for our debris team members," Alsobrook said, emphasizing the unique skill set required to safely navigate turbulent whitewater rapids while operating a motorized boat filled to the brim with heavy plastic pipe and vibrating power saws.

The initial priority for the organization was the swift removal of any pipes that posed an immediate physical danger or dangerous entrapment hazard to recreational tubers, swimmers, and kayakers. Today, a significant portion of the remaining debris sits stranded within expansive floodplains and along remote riverbanks, particularly clustering around sharp riverbends and corners where it remains acutely vulnerable to being swept back into the current during the next high-water event, Stamper noted.

Every time local water levels fluctuate, it becomes starkly apparent just how many pipes remain hidden beneath the surface or buried within the banks.

MountainTrue is actively applying for additional outside grants to help extend its specialized cleanup program once current state and corporate funding eventually run out, Stamper said, noting that it could realistically take many years to clear all of the foreign debris from the natural watershed.

"We’re going to do our best as long as the funding allows," he concluded. "কিন্তু there’s going to be pipe out there that we can’t get ever."