Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 6, 1993                   TAG: 9307070417
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AT THE LAKE, A STRUGGLE TO PROTECT WATER

This pipeline proposal is expensive. Smith Mountain Lake residents have been led to believe that water has been offered by the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth for $2 to $2.50 per 1,000 gallons with no limits imposed. Cost of the pipeline is $4.50 per 1,000 gallons. Does this make sense?

The intended capacity of the pipeline is two times the requested amount of 60 million gallons per day. Why? Bourassa stated that this amount is less than 1 percent of the flow. While this is true during normal rainfall periods, it is false during dry periods when it is estimated that it would amount to 11 percent or more.

These dry periods concern us at Smith Mountain Lake. What happens if the amount required by Virginia Beach doubles? Their pipeline can carry 120 million gallons; dry season estimates also double to 22 percent.

We have been informed that Tom Leahy, project manager in Virginia Beach, is refuting all the allegations above. A few cannot be refuted - the 1 percent to 11 percent is true. His statement that there would be no effect on Smith Mountain Lake is not true. Just the idea of the pipeline has the citizens up in arms, a definite effect. Whom do we believe?

Bourassa is off base. When he was on the Water Control Board, he proposed inter-basin transfers of water statewide. This is a bad idea when the cost of pipelines crisscrossing is considered, as well as the legal squabbles one might envision over such an issue. Lawyers will get rich. While some inter-basin transfer has been done, it's no excuse for every town, city and farm to engage in this kind of demand.

Is this foot in the door a prelude to general inter-basin transfer? If so, how much water will farmers demand?

An example of havoc caused by transferring water has already reared its ugly head in the western United States. Farms growing crops in arid areas use up most of the water from the Colorado River, leaving none for those at the end of its flow into the Gulf of California.

The Sacramento River is used to flood rice fields, which are loaded with chemical fertilizers and then pumped back into the river. You can imagine what this does to San Francisco Bay, as well as to the navigation that used to go a long way up the river.

All the while, there is a water shortage for people needing to bathe, drink and cook.

Southwestern Virginia needs jobs. We have people, roads and water. Why not a tax incentive to attract those businesses needing water to the points where it is available, and let remaining rivers and streams stay in their own beds?

We don't want this pipeline built. Leave the rivers and streams alone. There are cheaper and better ways to get water than stealing it from your neighbor.

Several cities in the nation recycle theirs through inexpensive natural filtering systems called wetlands or swamps. Smith Mountain Lake residents seem to be in a constant battle to protect the very resource which attracted so many to this Garden of Eden. CHUCK HOOVER SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE