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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 11, 1995                   TAG: 9505110076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

LAKE PLAN `FOLLY'

Virginia Beach officials may have finally persuaded their North Carolina counterparts to support the Lake Gaston pipeline, but lawmakers in Southside Virginia aren't nearly so sated.

And a group of them pledged Wednesday to fight for a delay in the project until they've had their say.

Four Southside lawmakers called a news conference Wednesday to pillory the Lake Gaston pipeline deal struck last month, calling it reckless and unfair and accusing proponents of trying to ram it through the legislature without debate.

They used words like ``folly'' and ``injustice'' to describe the plan, which would let Virginia Beach pump as much as 60,000 gallons of water every day from the lake on the Virginia/North Carolina border.

In particular, they questioned plans to call a special June legislative session to consider the deal, and said they will push to delay General Assembly votes on the matter until at least January and hold a series of public hearings around the state.

Virginia Beach - faced with a water shortage and rapid population growth - sought permission for more than a decade to build a 76-mile pipeline to pump 60 million gallons of water a day from Lake Gaston to the coastal city.

North Carolina, downstream on the Roanoke River, has long opposed the pipeline, but dropped its oppostion last month. In exchange, Virginia granted North Carolina an option to pump up to 35 million gallons of water per day from Lake Gaston. Virginia also promised to improve two roads in Chesapeake that are heavily used by North Carolina commuters heading to Hampton Roads.

However, now Southside Virginia legislators, upstream from Lake Gaston, are objecting that the pipeline deal might endanger their water supplies.

Gov. George Allen has said he will call the legislature into session in late June - if lawmakers have reached an agreement.

``I don't see how that can be accomplished by fax machine,'' said Del. Whittington Clement, D-Danville.

U.S. Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, and Del. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, also appeared.

Bennett said the pipeline would ``undermine, if not shut down, economic development'' in Southside Virginia by slicing into the region's water capacity to boost capacity in Virginia Beach.

But the group also criticized the agreement specifically, saying it makes concessions to North Carolina for use of Lake Gaston but makes no comparable concessions to Southside. Also, the deal would establish a two-state Water Advisory Commission with no Southside representatives.

The most fiery complaint, however, was that Southside lawmakers were shut out of negotiations to reach the deal. And it is, after all, their water that Virginia Beach wants.

``It establishes a bad precedent for the commonwealth of Virginia - one which allows big cities to run roughshod over smaller rural areas,'' Payne said.

Payne suggested Virginia Beach reconsider desalination or water conservation as pipeline alternatives, both ideas that the city has deemed impractical or insufficient.

Clement suggested a water shortage may simply be a consequence of growth that Virginia Beach should be forced to bear.

by CNB