Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160124
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Short
The board passed a resolution Tuesday stating its opposition to inter-basin water transfers, namely the project that would send 60 million gallons daily from Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach.
Though Franklin County is upstream from Lake Gaston, residents are concerned that increasing water demands by Virginia Beach could force Smith Mountain Lake's level to drop in order to keep water flowing to Tidewater.
"Maybe 10 years down the road, they would need more," lake-area Supervisor Charles Ellis said. "We may have to let water out of this lake to let more water downstream to go to their pipeline."
The Smith Mountain Lake Association last week held a meeting on the proposed Lake Gaston pipeline. At the meeting, Roanoke River Basin Association President Alan Hoffman said an internal Army Corps of Engineers memo recommended that the pipeline should be the last significant water withdrawal from the river basin.
Bedford and Franklin county residents at the meeting took Hoffman's statement to mean the Lake Gaston project likely would stifle growth in the counties surrounding Smith Mountain Lake.
Supervisors Chairman Wayne Angell said maybe Virginia Beach's growth should slow down.
"The gist of it is," Angell said, "if any area has already achieved growth beyond which its natural resources can sustain, Mother Nature may be trying to tell you something."
by CNB