THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506240107
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
This is the week the interstate Gaston agreement comes down to the wire in the legislature. A majority of legislators must ap-prove it or it's dust.
Odds are that a majority do approve. But odds are only even that they'll get a chance to vote. A few legislators with muscle to flex and no votes in the Beach have a hand in some panel or other whose topic is water but whose purpose seems something else: To wring partisan advantage for themselves, political disaster for opponents and/or a windfall for the homefolks from delay Virginia Beach's 12-year rush to drain water from a river basin overflowing with it.
This is representative democracy at its worst.
It's often the case that citizens must trust their elected officials at the local, state and federal level, because citizens know even less what's happening than their representatives do.
But the closer to home the consequences, and the less public deliberations get, the angrier constituents become. The obstinence and greed that have marked the negotiations with North Carolina and Norfolk are public turnoffs enough; if pure politics in Richmond stoppers this pipeline, the last puddle of public respect for government will parch like vampires at sunrise.
The public expects politicians to play cynical games with each other - but not with water at stake. Surely no legislator would let the best deal for the citizenry fizzle for his own or his party's gain. Surely all legislators are more concerned that citizens get a fair shake than that, say, certain Democrats get the credit or a certain GOP governor gets the blame.
Surely they are, if for no other reason than this: The engineers signed off on the Gaston project long ago. The last lot of bureaucrats will (knock wood) OK it next month. Voters who've paid attention will recognize a pipeline hiccup now as rank politics. And by Nov. 7, they'll know which pols deserve the blame.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE by CNB