Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 20, 1995 TAG: 9506200092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Members of the special legislative committee that reached the agreement would not discuss its details. But most said they expect officials in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and North Carolina to approve it - or at least agree enough that a final settlement can be reached quickly.
Negotiators left the state capital late Monday to continue talks with local officials in time for General Assembly meetings scheduled today.
``It is the feeling of most of us involved here that these discussions - tonight and tomorrow - may very well resolve the remaining differences,'' said Del. George Heilig, D-Norfolk, head of the House subcommittee in charge of writing the compromise.
``It is what I consider to be remarkable progress,'' he said.
Officials in Virginia Beach and North Carolina reached a proposed pipeline agreement in April, but legislators have been reworking it because of objections from Norfolk and jurisdictions in the Roanoke River Basin.
Monday's development was the first clear sign that lawmakers might reach a settlement before the original agreement's deadline next Tuesday. North Carolina apparently has refused to budge on the deadline, and Heilig said there are no plans to extend it.
That would mean Gov. George Allen must call a special session of the legislature, probably Monday and next Tuesday.
A spokesman for the governor said special sessions can be announced without notice, but he would not comment on whether the state's 140 legislators can be expected to report for work in Richmond with just six days' notice or less.
Hampton Roads legislators seemed pleased with Monday's development.``All of the things that we're talking about now are things that Virginia Beach, hopefully, feels comfortable with,'' said Sen. Clarence A. Holland, D-Virginia Beach, who helped craft the plan.
``I'm very satisfied from Norfolk's standpoint,'' said Heilig. Norfolk officials opposed the original agreement because it would have restricted the city's ability to sell surplus water.
But Southside legislators, who have opposed the pipeline project out of worries about its impact on their district's own water levels, still seemed cool to the plan.
Del. William Bennett, D-Halifax, said the tentative plan would reduce the amount of water that North Carolina could pump from Lake Gaston, but do little else to placate his part of the state.
He said lawmakers in Hampton Roads will likely use their political muscle to take the agreement before the legislature, regardless of Southside's objections.
``I think that effort is well under way,'' Bennett said.
by CNB