THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606220263
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 84 lines
North Carolina on Friday did what Virginia Beach had expected - and feared. It shipped a copy of Norfolk's new water supply report to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., saying the study proved the Lake Gaston pipeline is unnecessary.
If the court sides with the state of North Carolina, a project first proposed in the late 1970s could be further delayed, or even stopped.
Over the past dozen years, North Carolina has adroitly used the legal system to stall the pipeline, despite repeated state and federal agency and court rulings in favor of the project.
North Carolina has long argued that the pipeline wouldn't be needed if South Hampton Roads' cities merely shared the water they already have.
The new supply study found that Norfolk's water system could produce as much as 18 million more gallons per day than previously estimated.
Norfolk and Virginia Beach officials have quarreled all week about the report's conclusions and whether the document should have been made public at all.
Virginia Beach officials said the report is misleading and accused their neighbor of trying to sabotage the $150 million project. Norfolk said it was bound by state law to release the report after The Virginian-Pilot filed a legal request for it.
Norfolk, the Beach and other area officials said that any extra water found in the study is not enough to quench the region's long-term thirst, and that the 76-mile Gaston pipeline is still needed.
But, in its motion, North Carolina said the report adds weight to its argument that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did an inadequate job of justifying the need for the Lake Gaston pipeline.
The commission relied on ``biased,'' ``incomplete'' and ``long out-dated'' information, according to the motion, ``and therefore failed to recognize that increased supplies and reduced demand have eliminated any need for this project.''
The commission also was unaware of the new study, which has been under way for five years, so it didn't adequately consider the available facts, the motion argues. Pipeline supporters acted dishonestly, according to North Carolina, by not revealing the information.
If North Carolina succeeds in convincing the court that the commission acted arbitrarily in giving Virginia Beach a permit for the pipeline, it could force the commission to spend months or years re-examining the project.
North Carolina is hoping the commission would then rescind the permit. Without the permit, there can be no pipeline.
Beach officials said they were not surprised by North Carolina's actions and said they do not think those efforts will be successful.
``The concerns we expressed about the report being used against the Lake Gaston water supply project have come to pass,'' Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said in a prepared statement. ``The study is hopelessly theoretical and misleads the public as to the amount of water that is really available. We have no doubt that the court will recognize this and that it will approve the Lake Gaston pipeline just as every other court and agency that has looked at the project has done.''
M. Scott Hart, an outside attorney for Virginia Beach, said:
``I don't think the worst case is going to happen. I'm very confident that FERC would agree with us . . . that the water just isn't there.''
The court will hear from both sides again in arguments scheduled for Sept. 9.
Norfolk released the new water study Monday, just three days after the final deadline for pipeline opponents to present written arguments to the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, which is considering the validity of the permit.
On Friday, North Carolina asked for permission to amend its materials by adding the water supply report.
Virginia Beach has no water source of its own and buys all its water from Norfolk. Because of limits to Norfolk's water supply, Beach residents have, for four years, been living under restrictions that severely limit the outdoor use of municipal water.
Norfolk said the extra water found in the new study will allow it to lift penalties that had discouraged the Beach from relying too heavily on its system. Beach officials have said they may not want to lift those penalties - which amount to about $700,000 per year - because that would imply they agree with the study's conclusions.
On Thursday, Virginia Beach's city attorney filed a legal request under the state's Freedom of Information Act to get backup data used to compile the Norfolk study. Norfolk delivered much of the requested data late Friday afternoon to the home of Gaston project manager Thomas M. Leahy III.
KEYWORDS: WATER SUPPLY PLAN LAKE GASTON
PIPELINE VIRGINIA BEACH NORTH CAROLINA by CNB