
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 11, 1994                   TAG: 9407110158
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HIGH-LEVEL TALKS TARGET VA.-N.C. WATER DISPUTE

A high-level meeting is being arranged to resolve a decade of disputes between North Carolina and Virginia over a water pipeline from Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach.

North Carolina legislators in Washington and Raleigh are behind the attempt to negotiate a solution to the conflict over the 85-mile, $142 million pipeline, The Virginian Pilot and The Ledger-Star of Norfolk reported Sunday.

"This conciliation conference is going to take place, and the highest officials in the two states will be involved," a source close to North Carolina Senate leader Marc Basnight told the newspaper.

Basnight, D-Dare, declined comment.

Lawyers for North Carolina have repeatedly gone to court with arguments that the pipeline would have serious environmental effects in the Roanoke River below Lake Gaston in North Carolina.

Virginia has countered that the effects of drawing 60 million gallons a day from the lake, which straddles the two states, would be negligible.

The dispute seemed to turn in North Carolina's favor last month when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered an environmental impact study.

by CNB