THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260464
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Finally, the city has heard good news from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The commission, which decided in June to conduct an environmental study of the Lake Gaston pipeline project, announced Tuesday afternoon that it would complete a draft version by February.
The final study should be completed in late spring, according to a ``scoping document'' released by the commission.
The commission is the final roadblock in a decade-long effort to build a 76-mile pipeline between Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach. The pipeline would help the Beach deal with present and future water needs. It also would provide water to Chesapeake, which has agreed to share in the $142 million cost.
Although Virginia Beach officials would much rather the environmental study not be conducted, they were happy Tuesday about the proposed timetable.
``The expedited schedule is good news,'' said Clarence Warnstaff, director of the Department of Public Utilities. ``The bad news is that they're going to do it at all.''
The timing of the study is crucial, because if the city doesn't know by April 28 whether it can proceed with the water pipeline, the project could be delayed three or four more years, he said.
At the end of April, Norfolk will begin a three to four-year process of upgrading its water purification system to comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act of 1986.
Virginia Beach, which relies on Norfolk to process its water, must tell Norfolk by April whether to expand its water system to deal with the extra flow from Lake Gaston. If the expansion isn't begun at the same time as the upgrade, it will have to wait until the upgrade is completed, Warnstaff said.
``If the final environmental impact statement is issued before April 28,'' Councilman Louis R. Jones said, ``that would put us in a position to where we could make an intelligent decision as to whether to invest the $100 million in the Norfolk treatment system.''
The scoping document, the result of several public hearings on the Gaston project, details the issues to be addressed in the environmental impact statement.
That also included some good news for Virginia Beach, Warnstaff said.
FERC accepted the Beach's argument that it desperately needs 60 million gallons of water a day, and decided not to study that question further.
It also declined to further investigate possible impacts of the pipeline on bald eagle habitats, cultural resources, forested habitats, agricultural lands, endangered mussels and dioxin and aluminum concentrations along the proposed route and in the Roanoke River.
Areas that still require study, FERC said, include alternative sources of water for the city and the environmental impact on five geographic areas around it and along the Roanoke River.
The report did not specify whether the study would examine the effect on the striped-bass nursery, which North Carolina has maintained would be harmed by the loss of water from the lake.
KEYWORDS: WATER SUPPLY PLAN LAKE GASTON PIPELINE by CNB