THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 29, 1995 TAG: 9504290018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
After years of courtroom haggling between Virginia Beach and North Carolina on the Lake Gaston pipeline, four months of mediation among the parties by federal mediator John Bickerman have produced a minor miracle: agreement as to how this dispute can be settled short of swords at dawn or lawyers' liens on city revenues in perpetuity.
It's not a done deal yet, but the praise flowed liberally, and justifiably, in council chambers yesterday as City Manager Jim Spore and City Attorney Les Lilley signed on for the city of Virginia Beach. The water may flow somewhat more liberally to Beach residents this fall, after the agreement is concluded and the contracts for pipeline construction let.
But water won't flow from the Gaston pipeline before spring 1998.
And it won't flow then unless the next 60 days produce some major miracles on this side of the Virginia-Carolina line.
Among other things, the settlement requires that Virginia's U.S. senators and ``appropriate state officials'' assure North Carolina that Routes 17 and 168 ``will be expeditiously improved.''
It requires that the two states establish a Bi-State Water Advisory Commission with eight members from each state, all appointed by their respective governors.
It requires that Virginia and North Carolina legislatures permit an interstate compact governing what other localities may tap into the Roanoke River Basin.
And it requires that Norfolk pledge not to sell its water outside Southeastern Virginia and northern North Carolina.
In short, the settlement requires cooperation among politicians whose mission in political life has been tripping each other up.
On the state level, for example, the Republican governor and the Democratic General Assembly have spent months showcasing the pettiness of the other. They will spend the next five months to the November elections fighting to maintain or obtain control of the Assembly. Either party, or both, could decide that what's important isn't getting Gaston water but keeping the opposition from getting the credit or ensuring it gets the blame.
Elected officials petty enough to deny Gaston water in order to deny political opponents credit ought to lose their seat. Only an alert electorate can see that they know what the consequences will be.
As for regional squabbles, if regionalism were easy, Virginia Beach would not have gone solo into Lake Gaston. Norfolk wouldn't be facing restrictions on new customers for its water. An interstate compact wouldn't sound an easier bet than an intercity agreement.
What price Norfolk's cooperation in this deal? ``Revenue sharing,'' Norfolk says, meaning what? Revenue from what? How big a share? What's the cost if Virginia Beach won't pay it?
And at 59 days and counting down, where do we find state and regional counterparts to federal mediator John Bickerman? by CNB