DATE: Tuesday, September 2, 1997            TAG: 9709020123

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  107 lines

NEW WATER DISSOLVES REGIONAL TENSIONS SUPPLY AND DEMAND HAVE CREATED RIFTS AMONG AREA CITIES: HOW WILL THEY HEAL?

Thirty years of water worries are coming to an end - at least for now.

Within two months, the region will have 50 percent more water. In a little more than a year, a lot of what we already have will taste much better.

For the first time in decades, every South Hampton Roads city will have an adequate supply of the stuff that has driven politics, growth and residential quality of life since most of those cities were created.

The historic lack of water has driven jobs away from the region, left Virginia Beach residents with dirty cars and brown lawns, and undermined relations among cities.

It's not clear what will change, or how fast change will come. But there's no doubt that the water detente will have a profound impact on Hampton Roads.

``I think it fundamentally alters the supply-and-demand equation,'' Beach City Manager James K. Spore said.

During September and October, engineers will work the remaining bugs out of the Lake Gaston pipeline, and the region will finally get a hedge against droughts and enough water to try to recruit water-intensive industries like microchip manufacturers. The pipeline is expected to bring up to 60 million gallons of water a day, to be shared by Virginia Beach and Chesapeake and possibly Suffolk and Isle of Wight County.

The region consumes about 120 million gallons of untreated water per day now, according to Thomas M. Leahy III, project manager for the Beach's pipeline project.

At the same time, Chesapeake is building a treatment plant that will dramatically improve the taste and healthfulness of the water piped to Great Bridge, Greenbrier and parts of Deep Creek. During dry periods, large sections of the city receive water so high in chlorides that it is undrinkable and so high in sodium that it is unsafe for people with heart and kidney problems. With luck, this may be the last summer of bottled water in the fast-growing city.

And last week, Portsmouth and Suffolk put aside years of rancor to sign a long-term, large-scale water agreement. The deal provides much-needed revenue to Portsmouth and meets Suffolk's water needs until 2005 or 2010, Suffolk Public Utilities Director Al Moor said.

Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said the combination of these events will mark a turning point for regional cooperation and economics. The Gaston water changes a traditional dynamic among the cities, Oberndorf and others said last week.

Virginia Beach has accused Norfolk of fighting the pipeline so Norfolk could keep control of the region's water supply. Norfolk says it is taking care of the one asset it has that other cities need. City officials have always publicly supported the pipeline.

``I think we all become equals, like a family where each one of the sisters in all of the sister cities would have the opportunity to participate,'' Oberndorf said. ``Especially in economic development, because there can't be any whispers anymore: Don't bother to go to X, Y or Z city, because they don't have water, and we do.''

The Gaston water solves Virginia Beach's water crunch for 15 to 20 years, which ``gives us plenty of time to seek out the industry and the technology that we are so anxious to bring to this region, so that salaries will begin to match the national average,'' she said.

But even if Virginia Beach manages to overcome the Gaston pipeline's lingering legal problems, it will need more water again someday. Suffolk's new deal with Portsmouth fills the growing city's needs only for a decade or so. And permitting problems with the Peninsula's proposed new reservoir may make it harder for the region to shed its water-short image.

All those factors mean the cities will have to find a better way of dealing with water problems in the future, city leaders said last week.

``I continue to believe that there needs to be a more rational way of solving the long-term regional need for water,'' said Beach City Manager Spore, who described the existing process as ``a pretty goofy way to plan a regional resource.''

Spore and his counterparts in other cities have begun meeting monthly to improve their cooperation on important regional issues, including water. They have not come up with a solution yet, Spore and Norfolk City Manager James B. Oliver Jr. said.

``I frankly think if the managers were allowed to really work on it, it could be solved,'' Oliver said. ``The details - whether they would be politically acceptable, or acceptable to ratepayers - might be more problematic. (But) I think the managers, with business approaches, could probably create the financial structures and so forth.''

One possibility would be to create a regional water authority in which all cities would share ownership of the area's water pipes, treatment plants and sources, and all residents and businesses would pay the same rates.

If area cities could agree on a price for Norfolk and Portsmouth's water systems - which is a big if - the newer cities could pay off the older ones. That would give the core cities some much-needed cash and give the developing cities power over a crucial resource they have always lacked.

But Oliver said he thinks agreements like the one between Portsmouth and Suffolk will work better than a formal authority. Norfolk is not going to give up its most lucrative asset without getting something equally valuable in return, he said - and he doesn't think other cities will be willing to pay the right price.

``My guess is, it's easy to talk about (a regional water authority) now,'' he said, ``but . . . like any other development, you get into the details and people start to have second thoughts.''

Suffolk City Manager Myles E. Standish said he hopes the deal his city struck last week with Portsmouth can be a model for the rest of Hampton Roads.

``The century's about to turn,'' he said. ``What may have been acceptable practices 10 to 20 years ago are no longer.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Lake Gaston pipeline

Chesapeake plant

Portsmouth/Suffolk deal KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE SERIES

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