THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507010502
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
North Carolina and Virginia Beach, looking to buy more negotiating time for a Lake Gaston pipeline deal, won a critical delay Friday in the release of the final federal study on the project.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, at the two parties' request, agreed to keep secret until July 7 its findings in an extensive review of the project's impact on the environment.
The study is a key element in the commission's decision on whether Hampton Roads will be permitted to tap the man-made lake that straddles the border between the two states.
Neither Virginia Beach nor North Carolina wants to see the results of the report until they reach a new deal, because each realizes that a ruling would dramatically change the dynamics of their newfound cooperative relationship.
The report, and the commission's decision based on it, are likely to dampen the winner's incentive to negotiate and would give the loser a new opportunity for filing suit in a dispute that has already dragged on for 12 1/2 years.
By battling in the courts and before a number of federal agencies, North Carolina has repeatedly blocked Virginia Beach's efforts to take up to 60 million gallons of water a day from Lake Gaston, a Virginia Power hydroelectric plant reservoir about 125 miles southwest of Virginia Beach.
The delay in releasing the impact statement is likely to push back the commission's final ruling. The agency must make its report public for at least seven days before rendering a decision. The commission is next scheduled to meet July 12 - short of the required week - and then not again until July 26.
Budget struggles in the North Carolina legislature also bought negotiators more time than they expected for deal-making.
The North Carolina General Assembly was scheduled to end its annual session Friday, but it is taking legislators longer than they intended to approve budget allocations for the fiscal year that begins today.
Debate on the Carolina budget is now predicted to drag out at least another two weeks, giving negotiators more time to work out a deal that could be approved by the Carolina legislature.
On Wednesday, a standoff between Virginia Gov. George F. Allen, a Republican, and top officials in the Democratic-led state legislature doomed a pact that could have ended the water wars between the two states.
A special session of the General Assembly would have been necessary, but Allen refused to call it after the Democratic leaders balked at his demand to limit its length.
North Carolina and Virginia Beach officials have spent the last two days trying to come up with a new deal that would not require immediate approval by the Virginia General Assembly. Negotiators from both sides met for most of the day Thursday, and the Virginia Beach City Council held a pair of two-hour closed-door meetings Friday to discuss the alternatives.
Negotiators would not reveal details but said a proposal on the table basically follows the framework of the settlement that fell short in Richmond.
Although the parliamentary wrangling prevented that pact from being considered by Virginia legislators, most of its provisions do not require the approval of the General Assembly.
North Carolina had earlier sought such approval as a guarantee that Hampton Roads cities would never try to tap the lake again.
Virginia Beach, for instance, could agree, without the General Assembly's permission, to negotiated provisions that would maintain water conservation efforts; limit water use during severe droughts; contribute money for economic development around Lake Gaston; and limit Gaston water use to South Hampton Roads.
``The city of Virginia Beach will continue working in good faith to develop a fair and equitable agreement that does not require a special session of the Virginia General Assembly for enactment,'' Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said Friday.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE WATER SUPPLY PLAN by CNB