Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309230071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONETA LENGTH: Medium
But he probably didn't think he'd be called "arrogant" for being late, or be told he was "full of something" or have his city compared to a pig.
Leahy came to Bethel United Methodist Church to present the "other" side of the Lake Gaston pipeline controversy.
The Smith Mountain Lake Association scheduled Leahy to speak at its meeting after Allan Hoffman, the Roanoke River Basin Association president, riled up the group at an early-summer meeting. Hoffman's predictions of boats bogged down in mud and industries running out of water rang so ominous with the group that it began actively opposing the pipeline - even though the intake for the pipeline would be 100 miles downstream from Smith Mountain Lake.
"This is the first time - in June of 1993 - that I have ever heard anybody say the project would affect flows upstream," Leahy told the crowd about Hoffman's comments.
Leahy said Hoffman was using lake residents, and had misled them with several statements, including:
A claim that the 60 million gallons a day that Virginia Beach wants to withdraw from Lake Gaston would amount to 11 percent of the Roanoke River's flow during dry months. Leahy said Hoffman arrived at that figure by using flows from a weekend in November 1970, the lowest daily flow recorded in 30 years at Roanoke Rapids, N.C. In addition, Leahy noted, power companies traditionally release small amounts of water from the lakes on weekends.
A claim that in more than 10 years, there never has been an environmental impact study done on the project. In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers assessed the environmental impact of the pipeline in 1983 and 1989, and issued a detailed environmental impact statement in 1984.
"I have never understood why the Roanoke River Basin Association tells everybody an environmental impact statement has never been done, because they have long, opposing comments in the back," Leahy said.
But none of Leahy's contentions seemed to matter to the more than 100 people gathered in Moneta. A Bedford man passed out copies of a cartoon showing a pig, labeled "Virginia Beach," drinking out of a trough being fed by Lake Gaston.
Bob Hume, an environmental scientist with the Army Corps of Engineers, told the crowd the corps had studied 80 options for Virginia Beach's water supply and found the Lake Gaston project to be the least objectionable - other than building a desalination plant.
"I'm sort of hopeful you're going to go home today bored and realize there's nothing here to get upset about," Hume said.
Leahy said desalination would cost too much for Virginia Beach, which could end up spending upwards of $200 million to build the 70-mile pipeline from Lake Gaston. He said water from the pipeline would cost about $2 per 1,000 gallons, while water from a desalination plant would cost about $6 per 1,000 gallons.
"I understand that nobody here is going to care what the cost of water is in Virginia Beach, but we're not a rich community," Leahy said. "Our median income is about the average for the state of Virginia."
In the end, after two hours of hearing the Virginia Beach side of the controversy, the lake association said it would remain opposed to the project. Despite disagreeing with the lake association, Hume said he understood.
"Quite frankly, if I lived in the area of the lakes, I probably wouldn't want the project," Hume said of Kerr, Gaston and Buggs Island lakes, "because there would be nothing in it for me."
"There's always the chance that all these government scientists and engineers might be wrong."
by CNB