THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606220014
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 45 lines
It is puzzling and extremely regrettable that Virginia Beach had to file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain raw data for Norfolk's ``Usable Safe Yield'' water study.
The just-released study could undermine the Beach's quest for Lake Gaston water, a quest that was going well. Opponents of the Beach pipeline to Lake Gaston - North Carolina and Virginia's Roanoke River Basin localities - are using the study to try to halt or delay progress to the lake.
Virginia Beach has clear need to have its experts examine closely the backup-study data for possible flaws.
That prospect displeases Norfolk, which commissioned the study to learn more about its water system and how to better manage it. But Norfolk has an absolute duty to turn this information over to Virginia Beach as quickly as possible in order to preserve any semblance of regional cooperation.
When Virginia Beach, through its city attorney, first asked for the backup data, Norfolk's city attorney responded that the Beach could examine the data under conditions that Beach officials understandably rejected as unpalatable. For example, Norfolk insisted that Virginia Beach officials and their experts come to Norfolk to scrutinize the data in the presence of engineers who prepared the study.
The Beach rightly wanted to have the data in hand to allow its own experts to get a good look at it.
Frustrated, the Virginia Beach city attorney filed an FOIA request for the data on Thursday. On Friday, Norfolk's city attorney said he would turn over all nonexempt material as requested.
How much better it would have been had Norfolk said yes immediately to the Beach's request for the backup data. How much water Norfolk's system could safely yield in a worst-case drought is a question crucial to the welfare of all in water-short South Hampton Roads.
More controversy is ahead. The computer model of Norfolk's water system likely will remain in contention since some at Norfolk City Hall suggest that FOIA regulations do not require the city to release the model to others. Norfolk has said Beach experts may use the model in Norfolk.
Norfolk should adopt a less-adversarial stance toward Virginia Beach in discussions involving the new study - before relations between the two are so poisoned that regional cooperation ends. by CNB