
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 25, 1994                    TAG: 9406250246 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A9    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940625                                 LENGTH: Medium

A KEY N.C. LEGISLATOR AGAIN PUSHES TALKS WITH VA. ON THE PIPELINE PROJECT

{LEAD} North Carolina state Sen. Marc Basnight, a Dare County Democrat who is arguably the state's second most powerful political leader, bucked his own administration Friday and again urged joint talks to settle the Lake Gaston water controversy between North Carolina and Virginia.

Basnight opposed other North Carolina officials who on Thursday hailed a new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission delay in a Virginia Beach plan to pipe 60 million gallons of Lake Gaston water a day to South Hampton Roads.

{REST} The energy commission ordered an environmental impact study that could take months or years to complete.

Basnight, president pro tem of the state Senate, deplored ``extremists on both sides'' for stirring up years of legal argument over building the $142 million pipeline.

Basnight conferred with state Deputy Attorney General Alan Hirsch on Friday. Hirsch's boss, Attorney General Michael Easley, and Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. have claimed that withdrawing water from the lake would hurt North Carolina's environment.

Basnight would not reveal the content of his discussion with Hirsch but said he believed that the new environmental study would give both states an opportunity to begin ``more meaningful conversations.''

``I welcome this search for truth,'' Basnight said. ``It should have come 10 years ago. It must be made obvious to everyone that the need for water in North Carolina and Virginia will become a great human challenge in the years immediately ahead. ''

Basnight repeated Friday an earlier promise that he would press for a meeting between top officials in both states to seek new solutions to the Lake Gaston squabble.

``If we can find out what the facts are, the truth about what the environmental consequences may or may not be, then we can go ahead and resolve this dispute in a neighborly way,'' Basnight said.

Two months ago, Basnight startled political associates when he first urged a more conciliatory relationship between the states in the Lake Gaston controversy.

After years of listening to strident legal dialogues about Lake Gaston, northeastern North Carolina political leaders were surprised at the support that quickly developed for Basnight's peace proposal.

``I was astonished, too,'' Basnight said Friday. ``I haven't heard any criticism in my district.'' Basnight represents the 1st Senate District, which covers most of the northeastern counties that have close relations with South Hampton Roads.

Although both Hunt and Easley are on record as opposing the Lake Gaston proposal, Easley seemed conciliatory after he was informed of the environmental impact study. ``Now we have the lawyers and the politicians out of the picture and the experts can make a fair assessment of the environmental damage,'' Easley said.

{KEYWORDS} LAKE GASTON PIPELINE WATER SUPPLY PLAN

by CNB