THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270481
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Virginia Beach officials Wednesday asked the state to help them circumvent a federal agency that has ordered a time-consuming environmental review of the Lake Gaston pipeline project.
Lawyers for the city asked the three-man State Corporation Commission to grant Virginia Beach permission to seize 4 acres along the shores of Lake Gaston in Brunswick County.
The site would be the starting point of a 76-mile pipeline that would bring 60 million gallons of fresh water daily to the Beach, Chesapeake, Isle of Wight and Franklin counties.
The city contends that if the state allows the Beach to condemn the land, the project would no longer come under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees hydroelectric projects.
Virginia Power operates such a plant at Lake Gaston and is regulated by both FERC and the corporation commission.
In June, FERC decided to require a review of the pipeline's potential environmental impacts before granting the final permit needed to build the pipeline.
After hearing testimony Wednesday, State Corporation Commissioner Preston C. Shannon promised to decide ``as soon as possible'' whether to allow the city to condemn the land.
Lawyers for Virginia Power argued that the state does not have the authority to circumvent the federal study.
Even if it does, lawyers for landowners near Lake Gaston said, the commission shouldn't help kill a much-needed environmental review.
Virginia Attorney General James S. Gilmore III sided with the Beach.
``Virginia Beach unquestionably needs the additional public water supply,'' he told the commission. ``The Lake Gaston Pipeline Project is appropriate and necessary to meet that end.''
The bulk of the water from the pipeline would go to Virginia Beach, where citizens have been living under water restrictions and a development moratorium for the past two years. by CNB