THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407150587
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
The decade-long battle over the Lake Gaston pipeline escalated on both sides of the Virginia-North Carolina border Thursday.
Virginia Beach officials called for an emergency meeting today to discuss legal action to get the pipeline - stalled by a federal agency's environmental study - on track again.
But in Raleigh, a crowd of North Carolinians and a handful of Virginians showed up at a public hearing to explain why they oppose the project.
``Power and money follow water,'' said Ewell Barr, vice president of the Roanoke River Basin Association. ``We are talking about the power to control the entire future development of the Roanoke River basin both in Virginia and North Carolina. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deceiving themselves.''
The fighting words against the pipeline and Virginia Beach's consideration of a legal assault came as state lawmakers prepare for a make-peace meeting on the pipeline.
North Carolina state Sen. Marc Basnight, a Dare County Democrat, has led the effort to break the ice and perhaps resolve the dispute ``in a neighborly way.'' He and other North Carolina officials are planning to meet with Virginia officials, including state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle of Virginia Beach, early next week during a conference in Norfolk.
Thursday's hearing is one step in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's work on an in-depth environmental study of the $142 million pipeline.
It's a study that Virginia Beach officials desperately wish would disappear. The study could take years, and there is no guarantee that the
commission will endorse the pipeline.
Since late June, when the commission announced its decision to conduct the study, Virginia Beach officials have been trying to figure out how to shorten or eliminate the unexpected delay.
City officials did not announce the reason for today's emergency meeting, but council members said it is to decide on possible legal action challenging the commission's decision to conduct the study. City leaders also have talked about asking a judge to force the commission to set a deadline for completing the study. A news conference will be held after the meeting, which likely will be closed to the public.
A direct legal attack could be a risky strategy: It could antagonize commissioners and the agency's staff just as they begin the sensitive process of preparing the environmental study. Virginia Beach has had some successes in court in its long fight to build the pipeline.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission holds the key to letting water flow through the pipeline because it regulates Lake Gaston as a hydroelectric project.
The commission's hearing Thursday was the first of three meetings designed to get the public's views on which issues deserve more investigation in its environmental study. The two other meetings will be held next week in South Hill and Virginia Beach.
The meetings are only a slice of the public response: People have until Aug. 19 to submit written comments, usually far more detailed and scientific than public speeches.
Forty-three people spoke at Thursday's hearing. Only one of them favored the project - Virginia Beach's expert on the pipeline, Thomas Leahy, who stood up at the end of the meeting to refute some of the points made during five hours of comments.
``Why speak to the infidels? They won't listen anyway,'' Robert R. Matthias, assistant to the Virginia Beach city manager, said before the meeting.
All other speakers - from North Carolina politicians to environmental activists to lakeside homeowners - objected to the project and listed issues for the commission to study.
Some of the opponents were Virginians who live in communities that draw water from tributaries of the Roanoke. They fear Virginia Beach's withdrawal from Lake Gaston could limit or destroy their plans to expand water use in the future.
Their audience was four staff members of the commission and two contractors hired by the commission to help conduct the environmental study.
Speakers said the impact of the 76-mile pipeline would be felt from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. They said allowing Virginia Beach to take up to 60 million gallons a day from Lake Gaston could harm everything from the tiny oyster, which gives fishermen their livelihood, to growing communities and yet-to-be-built industries that someday will need water from the Roanoke River.
The stakes are high. Virginia Beach officials say their city's economic vitality depends on securing a reliable water supply. But speakers said the success of cities in the Roanoke River basin rides on denying Virginia Beach's request.
The speakers mainly focused on the project's potential impact on communities in the Roanoke River basin, which includes some of the poorest counties in North Carolina. They said allowing Virginia Beach to take such a large quantity of water from Lake Gaston, one of a series of impoundments in the Roanoke River, would limit the amount of water available for their communities to grow and expand in the future. The need for water, they said, extends from farmers who use it to irrigate crops, to water-using industries such as paper mills.
A spokesman for Weyerhauser Corp., which operates a paper mill employing 1,600 people in Plymouth along the river, said the factory's efficiency suffers during periods when the river's flow level drops. The company uses 90 million gallons a day for manufacturing and a cooling process, he said, and any substantial withdrawals from the Roanoke River could close the mill.
Leahy, in an interview, called the remarks ``the grossest misrepresentation to date.'' He said the mill had problems with its discharge into a small creek but has redesigned its system to eliminate those problems, even during periods of extremely low flow in the river.
Speaker after speaker said Virginia Beach has failed to take a serious look at other potential sources of water, from groundwater wells to desalinization of ocean water. They asked for alternatives to be studied.
Jonathan Howes, North Carolina secretary of environment, health and natural resources, struck that theme in his remarks. In an interview, he suggested that Virginia and North Carolina could work together on a study of the economic feasibility of a desalinization plant and even cooperate on a ``joint facility in the northeastern corner of the state.''
Beach officials say that they have studied desalinization and that its cost would force water bills to triple.
North Carolinians long have argued that Virginia Beach's proposed withdrawal would harm the striped bass that spawn in the Roanoke River. The bass got lots of attention in speakers' comments, but the hearing threw another fish into the pot: The short-nosed sturgeon.
Roger Rulifson, a biology professor at East Carolina University, said the short-nosed sturgeon is an ``endangered fauna'' that may survive in the river. He noted that an extensive search of environmental reports and studies yielded no evidence that the species has been found in the river. But, he said, ``that doesn't mean the fish aren't there,'' and he urged the commission to investigate.
Leahy, in his remarks, derided that reasoning. ``The person who made that comment said they hadn't found a short-nosed sturgeon, which is evidence that it is endangered,'' he said. ``They haven't found any Bengal tigers in the Albemarle Sound, but that doesn't mean our project will affect it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
HEARING NEXT WEEK
Hampton Roads residents will be able to tell federal officials
what they think about the Lake Gaston project during a public
hearing Wednesday, July 20, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Virginia Beach
Pavilion.
The hearing is one of several the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission will hold to determine what needs to be included in an
environmental impact study the agency has ordered.
For more information, call the Virginia Beach Department of
Public Utilities, 427-4631.
by CNB