THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200142
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB AND TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 75 lines
The City Council stepped out of the way of the Lake Gaston pipeline Wednesday, but ended up in the city of Norfolk's path instead.
The council voted 7-0 to approve a permit Norfolk needs to treat Lake Gaston water for Virginia Beach and other local communities. But Norfolk can only exercise the permit if it sacrifices its regular use of four deep-water wells in Suffolk.
Norfolk and Beach officials said they would have to study the conditions, but didn't see many options other than suing Suffolk.
``Litigation is a very real possibility,'' Norfolk City Attorney Philip R. Trapani said Wednesday night.
The cities could sue jointly or separately to either remove the conditions or to try to force Suffolk to pay for the money already spent to build the pipeline and the wells. Virginia Beach is paying about $250 million to build the pipeline and upgrade Norfolk's water treatment plant to treat the new water.
``If you can't live with the conditions, there really aren't very many options at this point,'' Virginia Beach City Manager James K. Spore said. ``Both Norfolk and Virginia Beach have got literally hundreds of millions of dollars invested.''
Spore said he plans to bring the issue to the Beach council on Tuesday.
Suffolk officials declined Wednesday to talk about the possibility of litigation.
But Suffolk Mayor Thomas G. Underwood said his city merely exercised its legal rights by imposing the conditions.
``Every city has the right to put conditions on permits,'' said Underwood, declining further comment.
The Suffolk council agreed to let Norfolk move its Western Branch Reservoir Pumping Station 500 feet out of a flood plain, and expand the station to handle the extra water from Lake Gaston.
But without Suffolk's express permission, the pumping station could transmit no more than the Gaston water and the 70 million gallons of water Norfolk uses now on average. Norfolk has the state's permission to pump at least 13 million gallons more per day from their wells.
The restriction means Norfolk - which relies on water sales to balance its books - could neither use nor sell that extra water.
``It sounds like Norfolk would have to give up some of its existing water rights,'' Norfolk Director of Utilities Louis Guy said shortly after the meeting. ``I don't expect Norfolk will want to give up its existing rights.''
Norfolk sells and processes all the water Virginia Beach receives. A large portion of Norfolk's water system lies within the boundaries of what is now Suffolk. The Beach is building the pipeline to have a water source of its own, although it will continue to get its water treated by Norfolk.
Suffolk would like to purchase some of the surplus Norfolk will have once Virginia Beach turns to Lake Gaston and no longer has to buy at least 30 million gallons a day from Norfolk.
Under normal conditions, Norfolk needs the water on paper more than it does to meet the needs of its customers.
It only uses its Suffolk wells when its other sources run dry, because the groundwater is harder and more expensive to treat. Norfolk has not relied on the wells since the winter of 1994, the last time its reservoirs ran low.
But if Norfolk cannot have access to the water without Suffolk's permission - as the Suffolk council wants - then it cannot make money off selling it to an industry or community that needs it.
Norfolk City Council member W. Randy Wright said he expected the council to talk soon about the possibility of suing Suffolk over the conditions.
``I think it's something the council would have to discuss and determine as a whole what action we would want to take in response to it,'' he said.
``I would think we would take very seriously any attempt to put limitations on something we would think that we own.''
Suffolk Utility Director Al S. Moor told his council that the conditions were in place to protect the city's interests.
``Our potential concern is meeting our future water demands in Suffolk,'' Moor said. ``The capacity requested by Norfolk is beyond their needs.''
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE WATER SUPPLY PLAN