THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040373
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
The ink is barely dry on an agreement between North Carolina and Virginia Beach officials over the proposed Lake Gaston pipeline, but a group of opponents already has challenged the deal.
Officials agreed last week to allow Virginia Beach to extend a pipeline 76 miles across southern Virginia and tap into the lake on the North Carolina-Virginia border for up to 60 million gallons of drinking water a day.
Members of the Roanoke River Basin Association, which opposes the project, said the agreement violates the Virginia constitution.
Ewell Barr, chairman of the association, said Tuesday that the group ``will take appropriate steps to have the settlement agreement set aside'' because Virginia Beach did not have the right to negotiate with North Carolina. Only the governor of Virginia has such authority, Barr said.
The association's statement is the first official challenge to the settlement plan, which its signers hail as the best hope to end a costly, 12 1/2-year stalemate.
The deal is to expire by the end of June unless it's approved by Congress and the legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina.
Barr said negotiators from Virginia Beach and North Carolina did not consider the needs of southern Virginians while negotiating the deal, as Virginia's governor would have.
Barr also told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the agreement fails to protect the Roanoke River Basin from future water withdrawals.
The association has members along the river system from the Danville area to the North Carolina sounds.
The chief lawyer for Virginia Beach in the pipeline dispute, John F. Kay of Richmond, declined comment on Barr's remarks.
Gov. George F. Allen has said he thinks the pipeline needs to be built. But he did not negotiate the settlement and has asked senior lawmakers to review it to see if it would pass in both houses of the General Assembly. If so, Allen has said, he would call a special legislative session.
The deal gives North Carolina a package of concessions and assurances in exchange for dropping out of the pipeline fight. North Carolina would have the option later of tapping into the lake for as much as 35 million gallons per day. Virginia Beach would have to pay for environmental safeguards. Also, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake would help widen highways leading from Hampton Roads to vacation beaches on the Outer Banks.
The deal was brokered by John Bickerman, a professional mediator who was assigned to the case by a federal court in Washington, where one of many Lake Gaston lawsuits was unfolding.
The Roanoke River Basin Association wasn't part of the negotiations because it wasn't a party to the lawsuit that prompted the talks.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE WATER SUPPLY PLAN by CNB