THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507060001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
I attended the hearing at the Pavilion in Virginia Beach on June 14 by a special committee of the House of Delegates concerning the Lake Gaston pipeline. The testimony of those representing Virginia Beach - mayor, councilmen, delegates - was all the same. In essence they have overused, overcommitted, undermanaged and underplanned water resources for their constituents, and they want the state (any state) and/or federal government officials to force their fellow citizens in the Roanoke River Basin to fix this for nothing, regardless of what it does to the Basin way of life.
They said they need only a few million gallons a day and that won't harm anyone.
It is not sensible that such a simple matter would lead to 12 years of legal warfare.
The speakers for the Basin claim that the pipeline will establish a legal precedent that will allow numerous other communities to build a pipeline of their own to the lake system and take all they want. Not one of them would pay a dime for any of this, so it would be popular - until there are enough pipelines to drain the Basin dry the next time we have an extended drought, especially if they all build pipelines like the one for Virginia Beach which can carry 350 million gallons a day (rather than the 60 million gallons a day they promise is all they will ever need). And they wouldn't think of selling all that extra water to other localities, would they?
Virginia Beach officials ignore the threat that the entire Basin would become part of their reservoir/treatment system, which would impose excessive, expensive requirements and regulations on our small rural water systems that would be financially disastrous to us.
The worst part of this scenario is that it seems unnecessary if the parties got together to form a regional water authority to plan and manage a system where the Basin builds and operates the ``valve'' at the west end of the pipeline at Lake Gaston. The Basin would control quantities so no harm is done to the Basin and charge Virginia Beach a nominal fee for the water and use the money for economic development, etc. Someday they might even do something smart like build a branch off the pipeline to their aquifer and fill it with the excess flow at flood times through that oversized pipeline.
Is there any leader out there who can prevail on the governor to convince Virginia Beach officials to sit down with the Basin officials and see if something like this can be worked out?
PETER EATON
Clarksville, June 25, 1995 by CNB