THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505210078
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
It seemed so simple when the pipeline was proposed a dozen years ago: Virginia Beach was dying of thirst and Lake Gaston had held a seemingly endless supply of untapped water.
Then came the reality check: a decade of interminable environmental permit applications and endless court battles against a truculent and resourceful foe, the state of North Carolina.
It seemed so simple again last month when North Carolina finally ended its opposition to the pipeline and agreed to an out-of-court settlement giving Virginia Beach its long-sought water and North Carolina some environmental and economic guarantees.
But before the ink had dried on the pact, reality roared in again, this time in the guise of partisan and regional politics.
For the project to succeed, divergent interests from across the two states will have to sign off on the settlement - a miracle that must happen in just over a month.
Norfolk, without whose support the settlement will fail, decided to use its trump card to ask for compensation for certain provisions of the agreement.
Virginia Beach officials said they need a deal with Norfolk by the middle of this week to have any hope of presenting the compact to the General Assembly before the June 27 deadline.
In case they can work out a deal, the Beach has hired a handful of lobbyists to argue their cause in Richmond. Sens. Charles S. Robb and John W. Warner are leaning on the governor and recalcitrant Democratic legislators; Beach delegates are calling their colleagues, shoring up support and seeking converts.
The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce weighed in on the issue Friday, strongly supporting the agreement in identical letters mailed to Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim and Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf.
But three Southside cities, represented by state Republican Party Chairman Patrick M. McSweeney, have filed motions hoping to derail the settlement before it reaches the General Assembly floor.
Gov. George F. Allen has agreed to call the special session to ratify the settlement, only if he is convinced of strong bipartisan support.
And the two top Democrats in the House of Delegates - Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr. and Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell - said Friday that they do not expect the Assembly to approve the pipeline compact in its present form.
Partisan politics is proving crucial - and confounding - to resolution of the settlement dispute.
Virginia Beach's legislators are mostly Republican; Norfolk and Southside's, mostly Democratic. The Republican governor has been supportive of the pipeline; but the legislature is led by Democrats.
Virginia Beach stands to gain the most from the pipeline, but Norfolk, which stands to lose its best water customer and $6 million in annual water sales, has much more powerful legislators.
All the legislators interviewed insisted the pipeline isn't a partisan issue: Everyone in Virginia Beach, regardless of party, supports the pipeline, and everyone in Southside, regardless of party, hates it. But they also took potshots at leaders of their opposing party.
Instead of coming out against Virginia Beach - whose mayor, although nonpartisan, is generally allied with the Democrats - Democratic legislators from Southside and southwest Virginia criticize the governor for not protecting their interests.
``I commend Virginia Beach,'' Del. Richard C. Cranwell, D-Roanoke said. ``I think they've done well in protecting their interest.''
Cranwell chided the state for passing up an opportunity to participate in the mediation. The attorney general's office, which had been a party to the lawsuit that led to the mediation, declined to participate.
A big stumbling block for the Gaston settlement is that there were not a lot of ``presences'' complicating the mediation. Only Virginia Beach and North Carolina officials worked out the 16-page settlement.
John Bickerman, who mediated the settlement between North Carolina and the Beach, said they never would have worked out a deal if everyone's wishes had to be met.
Norfolk and Southside communities were not invited to the table, he said, because they were not parties to the federal lawsuit that led to the mediation; but both said they could have bought into an agreement more readily if they had been allowed to participate in it.
``The fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia opted out of the negotiations I think is tragic,'' Cranwell said. ``(It has) given a large number of people in Southside and in southwest Virginia the impression that they have no voice in the process. For that reason they feel they have been slighted.''
KEYWORDS: WATER SUPPLY PLAN LAKE GASTON by CNB