Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993 TAG: 9306100037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONETA LENGTH: Medium
Alan Hoffman isn't one of them.
Hoffman, president of the Roanoke River Basin Association, reminded 200 homeowners, business people and politicians Wednesday that Smith Mountain Lake drinks out of the same cup as Lake Gaston.
That cup is the Roanoke River watershed, and Hoffman told those called together by the Smith Mountain Lake Association that it is not bottomless.
The Army Corps of Engineers has completed a computer model, Hoffman said, indicating that the 60 million gallons per day Virginia Beach wants to remove from the river basin should be the last significant withdrawal permitted.
"Virginia Beach gets its 60 million gallons a day first," he said, "and all the rest of us have to stir around for what's left over."
Virginia Beach first proposed the 85-mile pipeline a decade ago as a way to finally end its persistent water problems.
The pipeline is still in limbo, awaiting federal court rulings.
The fear at Smith Mountain Lake and throughout Southside Virginia is that Virginia Beach's daily withdrawal from the lake on the North Carolina-Virginia line will force water restrictions throughout the river basin.
Earl Hobbs, chairman of the Bedford County Public Service Authority, said the county's long-range development plan calls for drawing 11 million gallons daily from the river basin.
Future development in Franklin and Pittsylvania counties would require similar amounts, he said.
The 60 million gallons per day would be about 1 percent of the river's flow most of the year, but during dry spells, it would constitute as much as 3 percent or 4 percent.
Southside localities, hungering for industrial development, could conceivably have to turn down an industrial prospect with a demand for a lot of water.
by CNB