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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995                   TAG: 9505300014
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES R. HAWKINS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WATER TRANSFERS: THE HAVE-NOTS THREATENING THE HAVES

AS WE approach the next century, there is no more valuable resource than the availability of clean, potable water. To that end, the present-day water war taking place in Southside Virginia - the outcome of which will determine the growth pattern and economic development of not only the commonwealth but possibly the entire East Coast - the driving question simply should be: How much is enough? Twenty-thousand cars an hour by a business or is 40,000 enough?

Can we as a society put into place a policy allowing artificial environments to be created for population growth at the expense of other areas? If we allow the transference of water from one river basin to another through codification of Virginia law, we're in fact doing that.

Not only do populations grow beyond the ability of those natural resources found in that area, but pressures to develop lands we consider to be natural treasures, such as wetlands and coastlines, will eventually take place.

Historically, populations have grown up around the availability of natural resources, and all growth has been driven by the availability of them.

To look at the worst-case scenario, one simply has to look at California to see the disastrous result of water policy driven by greed and might. The city of Los Angeles has literally pumped rivers and lakes dry to maintain its growth patterns and prosperity, at tremendous costs to its more-rural neighbors located within and without the boundaries of California.

The long-term, negative impact of transferring water into a community, and having population and business development under artificial infusion of this resource, is that at some point the stream flow will have to be guaranteed to their areas. This could very well cause the restriction of use, not only agriculturally but by cities along the banks of this system. Cities at the maximum end, such as Roanoke, may be required to curtail activities to maintain steam flow.

And as I read the Lake Gaston agreement between Virginia Beach and North Carolina, this power is taken. You should be in favor of this agreement if:

You truly want a future where natural resources not native to an area can be artificially transferred from the area where it is naturally.

You want to create mega-population centers that will be all city-states in a new feudal system where surrounding areas are nothing more than growth support for these new mega-centers.

You want to continue the population pressure on the sensitive ecology of the Chesapeake Bay area.

You want to open up all the waters of the commonwealth, if not the East Coast, to those with the greatest political power to take it.

You should oppose this agreement between Virginia Beach and North Carolina if:

You believe that communities and populations living along rivers and streams should have control over their own destiny, and be able to control usage as it passes beside them.

You believe that populations should not be encouraged to have undue development in sensitive environmental regions or beyond local capabilities.

You feel that all citizens should have equal access to a future built upon their heritage and their resources.

This proposed agreement to control the waters in Lake Gaston puts into place a board with specific representation that leaves out any voice for the negatively affected areas, and also gives Virginia Beach greater powers than that afforded any other city.

It creates a domain with powers to control stream flow that not only provide for negative impact in rural communities but for sister cities in the Roanoke River basin.

And this proposal for water transfer is predicated as a genuine need when Virginia Beach has turned down considerations for other solutions, including improved technologies for desalination of the body of water on its banks, the Atlantic Ocean.

Charles R. Hawkins, of Chatham, represents the 19th senatorial district in the Virginia Senate.

by CNB