ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606170035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
A new study says Norfolk's water supply could be 18 million gallons per day larger than previously thought - big enough, according to North Carolina, to make the Lake Gaston pipeline unnecessary.
Norfolk officials released the study Saturday, a day after North Carolina filed legal documents repeating its argument that south Hampton Roads needs only about another 16 million gallons of water a day through the year 2030, not the 60 million gallons promised by the pipeline.
North Carolina has been fighting in court for more than a decade to stop construction of the 76-mile pipeline from Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach, which now buys its water from Norfolk. The lake straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border.
Alan Hirsch, the North Carolina special deputy attorney general who has headed the state's anti-Gaston efforts, said Saturday that he would not comment until seeing the report.
The new study, conducted by Gannett Fleming Inc., says more water is available than some earlier studies suggested, in part because of improvements Norfolk made to its water system after a drought in 1981. It also assumes that the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers can be drastically drawn down.
The study found that Norfolk's minimum water supply in times of drought, technically known as its ``safe yield,'' could be as high as 97 million gallons of water a day - 18 million gallons a day more than Norfolk assumed in its 1993 water contract with Virginia Beach.
Virginia Beach officials are concerned about the assumption that the rivers can yield significantly more water.
``Norfolk plans on sucking the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers dry,'' said Virginia Beach City Council member John Baum.
Louis Guy, Norfolk's director of public utilities, said the city has drawn from those rivers for 50 years and can take as much from them as it needs. No other downstream communities rely on the rivers for drinking water, he said.
Despite the new study's conclusions, Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf and Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said they remain convinced the Lake Gaston pipeline is necessary.
Construction on the pipeline resumed early this year after a court-ordered four-year hiatus. About 20 miles have been built.
Arguments in North Carolina's appeal of a federal permit to build the pipeline are set for Sept. 9 in Washington.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB