Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250057
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
All along, the 800-pound gorilla among opponents has been the state of North Carolina. When the Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit for the project in 1984, after reviewing it for nine years, North Carolina took its case into the federal courts.
When a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a district-court ruling favoring Virginia Beach, North Carolina attacked under the Coastal Zone Management Act. Beyond that stood the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service as possible scotchers of the project. But the staff of the Energy Regulatory Commission is now circulating a draft recommending approval.
That last straw may have caused North Carolina to suddenly shift gears. If, at some future date, it could draw as much as 35 million gallons of water a day for its own use, and if Virginia agrees to improve promptly those grossly inadequate roads to its tourist-rich Outer Banks, North Carolina will support water for Southeastern Virginia.
This would take the form of an interstate compact requiring approval of the legislatures in both states and the U.S. Congress.
There was at least one hook in the deal North Carolina offered: Virginia Beach could have the water provided none of its existing supply was sold outside Southeastern Virginia. That would stand in the way of the city of Norfolk, which now realizes $6 million a year supplying Virginia Beach with 30 million gallons a day, selling it to Newport News. Norfolk, however, would keep the contract to treat the new water from Lake Gaston at a generous rate and might sell any surplus within its existing service area.
The prohibition on sales outside the existing service area was reasonably designed to provide a reserve for future growth. But it added influential Tidewater legislators such as House Speaker Tom Moss, D-Norfolk, to the ranks of those unyielding opponents in Southside Virginia, who have viewed any diversion of water as a dire threat.
That danger lies less in the loss of water, which is likely to be plentiful for at least a century to come, than in the complicated regulatory process that might fall upon Southside if the compact goes through. That is, due deference would have to be paid the claims of Virginia Beach and North Carolina in the permitting process that might be necessary for any future large user of water. While such fears are probably overblown, the trials of Virginia Beach over the past two decades lend credence to them.
We might put this issue in perspective by referring to the report of the Army Corps of Engineers, 11 years ago. The corps said that 5 billion gallons of water, on average, flow daily through the Roanoke River Basin into the Atlantic Ocean. Virginia Beach, and now the state of North Carolina, would claim only 2 percent of that.
The corps also measured the impact of the pipeline on the Kerr Reservoir and Lake Gaston. It said the Kerr now fluctuates as much as 22 feet up and down to control flooding. Even during a drought, the corps projected the water drawn by Virginia Beach decreasing the level of the reservoir by no more than 3 inches. The effect on adjoining Lake Gaston, it said, would be at all times imperceptible.
Assuming this is accurate, and experts will doubtless be found to tell another story, that still covers only the present. What the people in Southside fear is precedent. What's to keep Virginia Beach and North Carolina from coming back for more? In fact, quite a lot, as witnessed by the coils through which Virginia Beach has passed.
The proposed compact offers the additional safeguard of establishing 95 million gallons a day as the maximum that can be withdrawn unless the legislatures of both states consent to an increase. But Southside knows it is politically weak when compared with those who might cast covetous eyes on the vast quantities of water now flowing useless to the sea.
The question of where the political weight lies might be seen in the fact that virtually all statewide politicians in Virginia have sided with Virginia Beach.
Gov. George Allen has taken the position that he doesn't want to call legislators to Richmond to ratify the compact by its specified deadline of June 27 unless agreement can be hammered out in advance. Democratic leaders, anxious to cast Allen in a bad light in this election year, promptly castigated this not unreasonable condition as an abject failure of gubernatorial leadership.
While the last meeting of the assembly was characterized by sharp differences between Democrats and Republicans, the water question won't divide so neatly along party lines. It isn't now clear what the legislature will do if called into special session. But if the pot can be sweetened for Norfolk, which is by no means unlikely, Virginia Beach may well carry the day. After all, what it's asking isn't unreasonable. Throughout history, if the people won't go to where the water is, then the water must be brought to where the people are.
Some of the most clearheaded leaders in Southside think Virginia Beach will ultimately prevail and their best interest will be served by getting what they can now. Merely insisting the water is theirs by right, and should run to the sea until they have need of it, is a dubious argument.
The balance of equities here might be seen as follows: Southeastern Virginia and North Carolina have a legitimate need for a small share of the water. Southside has an equally legitimate claim to a guarantee that the tap, once opened, won't be continuously enlarged. And more tangible forms of compensation in the here and now certainly aren't out of line.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times & World-News columnist.
by CNB