THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310309
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Virginia Beach tried again Monday to do an end run around North Carolina in pursuit of water from Lake Gaston.
Virginia Beach lawyers argued that the federal court for the Eastern District of North Carolina should make it easier for the city to get water from the man-made lake that straddles the two states.
North Carolina lawyers, joined by attorneys for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Roanoke River Basin Association, asked the court to retain its tough stance on the issue.
Judge W. Earl Britt imposed an injunction against Virginia Beach in December 1990, forbidding construction of the pipeline until the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signs off on the project. Lake Gaston was created as a hydroelectric power project in the 1950s and has since been regulated by the commission, the final federal agency that must approve the project.
Virginia Beach officials Monday asked Britt to modify his injunction to allow construction if the city can obtain property rights to the intake point along the lake front. They contend that if they are able to obtain the land through condemnation, a process that was allowed late last year by the Virginia State Corporation Commission, then they should not need the federal agency's permission to build the 76-mile pipeline.
The city's lawyers argued Monday that the federal law that created the energy regulatory commission, does not interfere with a state's right to share water sources with hydroelectric power plants.
North Carolina's counsel countered that no court has ever interpreted the law that way.
Frederick M. Lowther, who represented North Carolina, said Virginia Beach's argument ``simply defies logic.''
Patrick M. McSweeney, head of the Virginia Republican Party and the attorney for the Roanoke River Basin Association, which opposes the pipeline, agreed. He said that without the federal license to operate a hydroelectric plant on the Virginia-North Carolina border, there would be no Lake Gaston.
Edward Geldermann, an attorney representing the federal regulatory commission, said if the court sided with the Beach, his agency would have wasted $750,000 studying the environmental consequences of the proposed pipeline.
The agency released a draft environmental statement earlier this month that said the pipeline was Virginia Beach's best option for obtaining desperately needed water and would do virtually no harm.
Because the agency is expected to complete its environmental assessment by the end of June, Geldermann said there was ``little purpose to be served by entertaining a motion at this time.''
Virginia Beach has argued that it needs final approval for the pipeline before June, so that Norfolk can begin expanding its water treatment system to handle the 60 million gallons a day that would be siphoned out of Lake Gaston. Norfolk expects to begin work on an upgrade of its water system on April 28, to comply with federal clean water legislation and wants to include the expansion in that work. If the pipeline does not have the go-ahead by the end of April, Beach officials fear they will have to wait years for access to Norfolk's water treatment facility.
Judge Britt, who joked that he will miss the 15-year-old Lake Gaston proceedings if the project is ever allowed, took the matter under advisement and did not say when he would announce his ruling on the motion. by CNB