Asheville could have potable tap water next week. Here’s the latest.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Asheville residents could have drinking water in their taps as early as Wednesday of next week.

Water Resources spokesman Clay Chandler said the city is testing water samples this weekend, and if the results are acceptable, the boil water notice could be lifted as early as Tuesday night.

The city has been flushing the system of untreated water for about a week, Chandler said. There has been no raw or untreated water in the system since Saturday, and crews will be taking apart the raw water line today.

Before the boil water advisory can be lifted, the city will take 120 samples of water from endpoints through the system to test for bacteria. If the results are clear, water resources will provide notice and instructions to customers to return to drinking tap water.

City water customers have been under a boil water notice since water came back to the pipes in mid-October. Hurricane Helene destroyed the city’s water system and left residents without water for several weeks.

About two weeks after the storm, non-potable water returned to taps, but potable water remained a challenge. Local businesses and restaurants struggled to reopen without easy access to drinking water.

This week, Water Resources also identified lead problems in some Asheville schools’ water supplies. The problem is a result of pipes in the school system, and no lead was found in water samples from the spring at the North Fork Reservoir, which supplies about 80% of the city’s water.