THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280501
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
The Lake Gaston pipeline settlement is a success for regionalism, and perhaps its biggest test so far.
The accord, which is expected to be signed separately by both Virginia Beach and North Carolina officials this morning, effectively expands the South Hampton Roads area, creates new bonds and assumes continued good will among cities.
It may also pose a challenge to regionalism by giving Virginia Beach, the wealthiest and traditionally least-motivated of area localities, one less reason to depend on its neighbors.
Virginia Beach decided to pursue a pipeline to Lake Gaston in 1982, at least in part because Norfolk had threatened to cut off the Beach's water supply in two previous droughts. The current agreement, reached after four months of intense negotiations, finally will give Virginia Beach its own source of water, though it will continue to rely on Norfolk to treat it.
The Beach will pay $100 million to upgrade Norfolk's treatment system, a benefit to both cities.
Chesapeake plans to help pay for and draw water from the 76-mile pipeline - and Franklin and Isle of Wight County have reserved options - thus widening the web of interdependency across the area.
Several provisions of the deal will help make Northeastern North Carolina a major extension of South Hampton Roads.
The proposal also calls for the creation of a bi-state water advisory commission to study and monitor water use.
Northeastern North Carolina will be allowed to tap the pipeline for up to 15 million gallons of water a day to meet its development needs. The state can draw another 20 million gallons directly from the lake.
And the deal will speed the widening of U.S. Route 17 and Va. Route 168 in Chesapeake, cutting commuting time between the states.
The rosier relationship is already having spinoff effects: The Chesapeake City Council had dinner Thursday with Northeastern North Carolina officials. And the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce may soon be welcoming Northeastern North Carolina as its newest member.
All this cooperation means good news for development in both states, experts say. With water finally available from Lake Gaston, businesses will no longer be afraid to come to Hampton Roads.
``Hooray, we're back in business,'' Virginia Beach developer Andrew S. Fine said when he heard of the settlement. ``One of the biggest impediments to economic development for the whole region has been the scarcity of water.''
Even though only Virginia Beach has had a serious shortage, the perception has hurt the entire region.
Business owners have shied away from locating in Norfolk or Portsmouth because they think those cities are short of water, too, many business leaders and city officials said this week.
``This is one of those situations where it affects everybody in the region whether they realize it or not,'' Lonny Staylor, executive director of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, Portsmouth, said. ``When any of our cities increases their water supply, it helps everyone. . . . In the overall shakeout of things, you never can have enough water.''
The most obvious beneficiary of the pipeline is Virginia Beach, which can continue development and attract major businesses it couldn't have served before.
``The most obvious benefit is that the city can again control its own destiny, development-wise,'' said Robert J. Ruhl, who pursues businesses for the Beach's Department of Economic Development.
The pipeline doesn't mean the rampant growth of the 1980s will return to Virginia Beach. Changes in the national economy and new City Council growth management policies will guarantee that. But the water deal assures the continued good health of the state's most populous city, several business and political leaders said.
No one knows how many people decided not to build or buy homes in Virginia Beach because of water concerns during three years of prohibitions against watering lawns or washing cars.
Chesapeake has supplanted Virginia Beach as the state's fastest growing city, building 400 more homes than the Beach last year.
Residential development in Virginia Beach would have halted altogether some time next year, if the pipeline squabble hadn't been resolved, City Tax Assessor Jerald D. Banagan said. Without residential growth, the tax base would have stopped expanding, he said, which probably would have led to tax increases. That would have further hindered efforts to encourage business development.
Robert Baldwin, director of planning for Suffolk, expects the pipeline to take some of the home-building pressure off Suffolk, which has boomed in part because of water restrictions in Virginia Beach.
``Those people who didn't want to come out here in the first place probably won't have to'' after Gaston gets on line, said Baldwin. ``I think it will really balance out development in the region.''
The pipeline settlement will serve as a ``good test for regional cooperation,'' said City Council member John A. Baum.
Baum, who was on the council when Virginia Beach and Norfolk signed their first water agreement in 1972, said the bickering between the cities has been mostly political rhetoric.
Norfolk has always been fair to Virginia Beach, he said, and Virginia Beach has no reason to use its newfound water independence against its partner and neighbor. MEMO: Staff writers Toni Whitt, Mike Knepler and Mac Daniel contributed to
this report.
WHAT'S LEFT TO DO
In the next 60 days, the Chesapeake City Council and the state
legislatures of both Virginia and North Carolina must approve the
accord.
Both houses of the U.S. Congress will be required to sign off on one
aspect of the deal, an interstate compact that forbids Virginia from
ever taking more than 60 million gallons of water a day from Lake Gaston
without North Carolina's permission.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the last federal agency
with oversight of the pipeline, must also approve the project.
ILLUSTRATION: Color drawing
KEYWORDS: WATER SUPPLY PLAN LAKE GASTON PIPELINE by CNB