THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020567
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JOE TAYLOR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Talks between Norfolk and Virginia Beach on a proposed Lake Gaston water pipeline settlement reached an impasse Thursday, raising doubts about meeting a June 27 deadline for legislative action on the deal.
However, Norfolk officials said they still were willing to discuss the issue with their Virginia Beach counterparts. Norfolk leaders also suggested that a solution may require extending the 60-day ratification deadline.
``This is a high-stakes decision for all of the parties,'' Del. William P. Robinson Jr., D-Norfolk, said before the port city's General Assembly team and its city council met privately to discuss the issue. ``Everyone wants to come out of it in the best possible position.''
On April 28, Virginia Beach and North Carolina signed an agreement to end more than a decade of legal wrangling over the proposed 76-mile pipeline, which would carry up to 60 million gallons of water a day to Hampton Roads from the lake straddling the Virginia-North Carolina border.
But Norfolk, which did not participate in the talks leading to the settlement, raised objections to a provision that barred Norfolk from selling surplus water outside the immediate region. Until that point, Norfolk had been one of Virginia Beach's staunchest allies in the pipeline fight.
Because the settlement requires ratification within 60 days by the Virginia and North Carolina legislatures, officials have been trying to reach a hasty compromise to compensate Norfolk if it cannot find a buyer for the 30 million gallons a day it sells to Virginia Beach.
On Wednesday, the Virginia Beach City Council, without making a counter offer, rejected Norfolk's latest proposal, which would have cost the resort city about $200 million through 2030, the length of its water contract with Norfolk. Virginia Beach's last offer was to pay about $84 million.
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said Virginia Beach essentially walked away from the table, although Norfolk officials were willing to talk. ``This is a tragic way for our two cities to try to come to an agreement,'' he said.
Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf did not return a phone call Thursday.
Del. Glenn R. Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, asked if his city's settlement with North Carolina was dead, said it appeared to be dying.
House of Delegates Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr., D-Norfolk, said it was ``unrealistic'' for Virginia Beach to think it could make a one-on-one pact with North Carolina that puts a limit on another jurisdiction and then accuse that jurisdiction of being heavy-handed when it objected.
``We should have been part of it from the very beginning,'' Moss said of the settlement discussions.
He suggested that the 60-day ratification deadline could be extended, if both Virginia Beach and North Carolina agree, to allow time for further talks to resolve the Virginia Beach-Norfolk dispute.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT by CNB