Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505080033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Long
Keister Greer knows water issues.
And the 73-year-old Franklin County attorney now finds himself in the middle of the decade-long struggle over the Lake Gaston pipeline - one of the most controversial water projects in Virginia's history.
Greer, according to a North Carolina government official, will be asked to help draft an interstate compact - an agreement between two or more states that becomes federal law - between Virginia and North Carolina. The compact would allow an out-of-basin transfer of water from Lake Gaston - which is part of the Roanoke River system and straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border - to Virginia Beach.
The project is controversial for many reasons. Out-of-basin transfers allow one area to take the water resources of another. The politics of two states are involved. And some fear a dangerous precedent will be set that would allow other withdrawals from the Roanoke River basin.
The interstate compact - which is already in the works - must be approved by the states' legislatures and the U.S. Congress.
After 11 years of court battles, North Carolina and Virginia Beach signed a settlement April 28 that gives the go-ahead for the pipeline's construction. The projected cost is $242 million, including legal fees.
The settlement was needed before a compact could be created.
If either state legislature fails to approve the compact, the settlement is void, according to its terms.
The 76-mile pipeline would move 60 million gallons of water a day from Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach. The Virginia Beach City Council - facing a water shortage and rapid growth - approved the project in 1982 as the most feasible method of increasing its water resources.
North Carolina officials, fearful of the pipeline's effect on their state's water resources, filed the state's first lawsuit against the project in 1984.
With the April 28 settlement, North Carolina dropped its opposition. In exchange, it gets an option to acquire up to 35 million gallons of water per day from Lake Gaston at a future date and assurances that state routes 17 and 168 will be improved on the Virginia side of the North Carolina border.
Virginia Sens. John Warner and Charles Robb support the pipeline, as does Gov. George Allen.
However, the deal may be far from done.
The pipeline continues to be opposed by the Roanoke River Basin Association - a group that believes the future of Smith Mountain Lake and other water bodies in the basin may be jeopardized by the Lake Gaston precedent.
A group of Southside Virginia legislators has publicly denounced the settlement.
The bipartisan group includes state Sens. Virgil Goode and Charles Hawkins, Dels. Ted Bennett, Ward Armstrong, Roscoe Reynolds, Allen Dudley and Whitt Clement, and Rep. L.F. Payne.
Greer, a nationally known water rights attorney, agreed to help the Roanoke River Basin Association fight the pipeline.
He traveled to North Carolina to meet with Gov. Jim Hunt on April 19.
Greer carried with him a plan of attack: take the issue directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But he changed tactics on learning the settlement was at hand. North Carolina water resources director John Morris assured him that the water diversion would amount to only 1 percent of the total flow of the Roanoke River. It could easily be made up by releases from the Kerr Reservoir, upstream from Lake Gaston, Morris said.
In an April 22 letter to Hunt, Greer wrote:
"If I can be assured on this and the other points which I am about to mention, then I am prepared to state that this compact, rather than being a surrender, may well be a brilliant stroke the effect of which will be to protect the Roanoke River in perpetuity."
The strongest point that Greer wants to add to the compact is a ban on future out-of-basin transfers from the Roanoke River system above Lake Gaston. Greer said the provision would relieve the primary concern of residents at Smith Mountain Lake: that Virginia Beach, or another locality, could drain the lake water and destroy its quality of life.
Because a compact is federal law, it would be difficult for states to change its terms in the future, Greer said.
A special session of the Virginia General Assembly is expected to be called in mid- to late June to consider the compact.
What do Southside legislators and others think about Greer's opinion?
Armstrong said he opposes all out-of-basin transfers, and he's prepared to lead the fight against the Lake Gaston pipeline, he said.
"You can put a dress on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said. "But I'm a political realist. If the numbers are against us, then I think we need to make sure it's the best deal possible."
Payne also is continuing the fight. Wednesday, he criticized a draft report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that recommended approval of the pipeline.
Payne called for the commission to scrap the report because it was hastily completed.
The commission depended too much on data supplied by Virginia Beach to support its conclusion, and the settlement doesn't change the agency's responsibility to complete a thorough environmental analysis of the pipeline, he said.
Additional lawsuits are on the horizon.
The Roanoke River Basin Association has cited a section of Virginia law that requires the governor to conduct official business with other states either "in person or in such a manner as shall be prescribed by law."
"The settlement was negotiated by Virginia Beach directly with the state of North Carolina, and is invalid for that reason," said Ewell Barr of Danville, chairman of the association.
The city of Danville also is pondering a lawsuit. Mayor Seward Anderson said the state is retreating from almost 400 years of water rights laws.
"If the agreement that Virginia Beach and North Carolina reached becomes policy, then we have heralded in a new era of fill-in-the-blank redistribution of water," he said. "Any [Virginia] locality with a lake, pond, river or a settlement of rainwater in a puddle will be subject to having that water removed."
Staff writer Richard Foster contributed to this story.
by CNB