ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601220051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE AND DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
Lawmakers from Southside Virginia are trying to dam up the Lake Gaston pipeline with legislation - though some of them acknowledge they have virtually no chance of success.
About 20 legislators, led by Del. Whitt Clement, D-Danville, submitted a bill to the General Assembly on Friday that would prohibit cities with more than 350,000 residents from taking water from sources outside their primary basin.
Virginia Beach is the only city in the state that would be affected.
With construction of the pipeline just months away and approval already granted by the necessary federal agencies, even some of the bill's supporters doubt it will work.
"It probably can't," said Sen. Charles Hawkins, R-Chatham. "But it's our responsibility to our region to use every means possible to preserve our lifeline to the future."
The 76-mile Lake Gaston pipeline would siphon up to 60 million gallons a day from the reservoir straddling the Virginia/North Carolina border. Southside legislators oppose the pipeline because of concerns about its effect on communities upstream from the lake in the Roanoke River basin.
Del. Glenn Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, said the Southside lawmakers have no choice but to beat the anti-Gaston drum, even if the legislation has virtually no chance.
"It's like at the end of the Civil War: There were those who saw the end, and there were those who said there will never be an end. [Southside lawmakers] are representing those who say there will never be an end - not now, not ever."
Because of the federal government's approval of the pipeline project, there are questions about whether the bill could be enforced even if it passed. Supporters of the bill shrugged off the possibility, however, saying they're fighting the pipeline one step at a time.
The only hope for the bill seems to be if Southside lawmakers can convince colleagues from Northern Virginia that the Gaston pipeline could set a precedent that one day may hurt the Washington suburbs.
As of Friday afternoon, however, Clement had 20 co-patrons in the House of Delegates, none of them from Northern Virginia.
"I haven't had time to get it around to them," Clement explained.
The coalition from Southside, a sparsely populated region of the state stretching from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Tidewater, has had little success battling the comparatively mighty Hampton Roads delegation over the pipeline. And there was speculation Friday that House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, would steer the bill toward a generally pro-pipeline legislative committee.
"I'm sure I'll know what to do with it," said Moss, whose sympathies lie with Hampton Roads.
The emotional response to Gaston means that Southside is not looking for a compromise that might compensate them for their water: They are in an all-or-nothing fight to the bitter end.
"We say no to rape, pillage and plunder," declared Del. William Bennett, D-Halifax County.
Croshaw said emotions against the Gaston pipeline are running at "hysteria" pitch in Southside. And he knows firsthand: His wife is from Brunswick County, which borders on Lake Gaston.
"They hate me there," Croshaw said. "I'm the figurehead for the evil water-takers."
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB