Silver-Line owner to fund next phase of French Broad cleanup. Wednesday, September 30, 2026 The owner of Woodfin's Silver-Line Plastics will fund the next phase of a yearslong cleanup that began when floodwaters swept its inventory into the French Broad Riverduring Tropical Storm Helene. IPEX, the multinational corporation that bought the plant - one of Woodfin's largest employers - from the local Silver family in 2019, agreed to give $500,000 to MountainTrue, the regional environmental nonprofit that has handled much of the cleanup, the two organizations said in a joint news release Wednesday. "It's been a long road, and we weren't sure we would ever get to this point," Greg Parlier, a MountainTrue spokesperson, said Wednesday. "At some point it wasn't even really about getting money to help fund the cleanup, it was just about getting participation from a corporate neighbor. To get funding to help fund some teams into next year is kind of a cherry on top." IPEX has spent more than $100 million to rebuild the riverside facility, according to the release. But in the nearly two years since Helene, it has frequently come under fire for long periods of silence on Helene recovery, its lack of funding for public cleanup efforts and its continued practice of storing inventory outdoors. Last month, it publicly committed to shoring up those storage practices. Funded largely by a state contract, MountainTrue has pulled more than 6 million pounds of debris from rivers and streams around western North Carolina, including hundreds of thousands of pounds of Silver-Line pipe from the stretch of the French Broad between Woodfin and Tennessee's Douglas Lake. But cleanup leaders have said the state funding, set to run through the end of 2026, wouldn't be enough to finish the job. The $500,000 from IPEX will allow the work to continue into 2027. An IPEX-commissioned survey of the river will help cleanup crews target the most severe areas of debris, according to the news release. The news release also affirms IPEX's commitment, which MountainTrue leaders described to Asheville Watchdog last month, to commissioning an engineering study on the Silver-Line property and working with Woodfin and MountainTrue to make the facility more resilient. MountainTrue earlier this year began a public pressure campaign centered on the storage practices. "This is a win not only for MountainTrue, but the whole French Broad River community," said Gray Jernigan, MountainTrue deputy director and general counsel. "Our supporters stepped up to speak on behalf of the river, and it led to real, tangible results." But it remains unclear, Parlier said, what finally brought IPEX to the table. "Ultimately we were pleasantly surprised when they called," he said. "It's been really important to them to try to ensure us that they're not simply dropping off a check and saying, 'Good luck.'" Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube pages. Please submit your comments there. Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Jack Evans is an investigative reporter who previously worked at the Tampa Bay Times. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. The Watchdog's reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

IPEX launches System 1738.