THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 25, 1995 TAG: 9504250276
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
A final settlement to the 13-year Lake Gaston water dispute may be just a few key signatures from approval.
Representatives from Virginia Beach and North Carolina, who drafted the proposed compromise, are now waiting for approval from top political officials.
``It is under review at the highest levels,'' John Bickerman, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who has led the mediation effort, said Monday.
The two sides have been meeting privately for four months to try to end the interstate water battle.
The pact went to the ``highest levels'' last week, the mediator said. A formal settlement announcement could come as soon as Wednesday morning, when the Virginia Beach City Council may hold a special meeting.
At its regular meeting today, the council is expected to consider a resolution authorizing Norfolk to expand its water treatment system to accommodate Beach-bound water from Lake Gaston.
Approval of the expansion resolution would be a good indication that a settlement is near because Virginia Beach would be liable for the cost of any work done to expand the Norfolk plant.
Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said last week that she thinks voting for the $100 million expansion would be a ``calculated'' but ``very sound risk.''
If Norfolk's treatment capacity is not increased now, the work would have to wait several years, until improvements designed to meet federal clean water standards are completed.
Norfolk needs to know by Friday whether to proceed with the expansion - a deadline, sources say, that gave urgency to the dealings.
``We used that deadline all the time'' in the negotiations, Virginia Beach City Councilman John A. Baum said Monday.
Baum said a settlement makes sense for southeastern Virginia, which would be allowed to get the water it needs, and for North Carolina, which would get guarantees against Virginia taking too much.
Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Franklin and Isle of Wight County would be allowed to withdraw up to 60 million gallons of water per day from the man-made lake, which straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border. Virginia Beach, which would get about 80 percent of the water, has led the fight to build the pipeline.
Northeastern North Carolina communities would also be allowed to withdraw up to 35 million gallons of water a day from the lake, under the proposed agreement.
``I don't have a feeling that anybody took advantage of anybody,'' Baum said. ``There are advantages to both sides, and one of the big advantages is to stop all this litigation.''
North Carolina, which has fought the pipeline repeatedly in the courts, also has an incentive to settle now, sources have said, because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the last agency that must sign off on the pipeline, seems poised to give the project its approval this summer.
``We're just hoping that this draft is suitable to Carolina's governor,'' Baum said.
``It looks like a tentative agreement has been reached by the persons working on it, and we're waiting for favorable agreement from the (North Carolina) governor and the (Virginia Beach) City Council,'' he said. ``Nothing's final until two sides sign.''
If they do, the general assemblies in both states would have 60 days to ratify the agreement. One portion of the settlement proposal - an interstate compact forbidding Virginia from ever taking any more water from the lake - would also require the approval of the U.S. Congress.
The proposed agreement, which officials were still tinkering with at least as recently as the end of last week, also requires Virginia Beach to restrict its water use during times of serious drought.
And the state of Virginia would have to agree to widen U.S. Route 17 as well as Battlefield Boulevard, Virginia Route 168, to provide better tourist access to North Carolina beaches. If construction begins this summer, water from the pipeline would not reach the city until the spring of 1998.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON WATER SUPPLY PLAN TIDEWATER by CNB