THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 15, 1995 TAG: 9507150008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Another View
SOURCE: By FRANK W. RUFF
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Once again, Virginia Beach is claiming that all of Southeastern Virginia faces catastrophe unless construction begins immediately on the Lake Gaston pipeline.
If the water crisis is as grave as Virginia Beach has claimed for decades, why hasn't it developed a contingency plan? Why has it put all its hopes on completing the Lake Gaston pipeline project before another major drought occurs?
By its own reckoning, Virginia Beach can expect a severe drought before the summer of 1998 - the earliest that water from Lake Gaston would be available even if pipeline construction began today. When the city chose not to develop a contingency plan, it deliberately put its residents at risk during the period before the pipeline is completed. This was done to strengthen its position before regulatory agencies and courts.
While Virginia Beach has been insisting that it has no alternative to the Gaston pipeline to avert a likely water crisis, its neighbors have demonstrated how wrong that argument is. Suffolk, Dare County, Chesapeake and Newport News have all gone forward with brackish-groundwater-desalting projects. Virginia Beach could have done the same - and still can.
Regional politics is one factor that prevents Virginia Beach from looking at any option other than the Gaston pipeline. The city chose the Gaston option in 1982 so that it would no longer be entirely dependent on Norfolk for water. It lacked the stomach to fight for a regional system.
There is abundant brackish groundwater just west of Virginia Beach, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But Virginia Beach would rather continue its fight with North Carolina and dozens of Roanoke River Basis localities than deal with other localities in Southeastern Virginia to develop a brackish-goundwater supply right in the region.
Virginia Beach's insistence on the Gaston pipeline makes no sense to those of us living in the Roanoke River Basin. We are painfully aware that our water resources are already limited, contrary to what elected officials in Virginia Beach say. During a drought, runoff throughout the entire Roanoke River Basin is less than the amount of water that evaporates from the reservoirs in the basin.
Because there is limited water in the Roanoke River, we are already living with severe restrictions imposed by federal and state agencies on water withdrawals and wastewater discharge. New manufacturing facilities have been required to build off-stream reservoirs to prevent river levels from dropping during a drought. Some basin communities must impose water-use restrictions and rationing.
Given these facts, is it any wonder we resent being called selfish and hysterical when we oppose the taking of 60 million gallons of water a day from the basin by Virginia Beach? We think we have a right to more satisfactory answers from the resort city than we have been getting.
Virginia Beach submitted information to the Virginia General Assembly showing that Southeastern Virginia needs 27 million gallons of water a day less than it plans to take. The water-demand information used by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, on the other hand, is inflated. Per-capita consumption in the region is and will be only 100 gallons per person per day - not 121 mgd as assumed by FERC. That means in 2030, demand for the five-city area (Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth) should be 121 mgd rather than 148 mgd.
Southeastern Virginia doesn't need a substantial increase in water supply except during very dry periods. Virginia Beach says it would not pump 60 mgd to Norfolk reservoirs during normal periods. If fact, there would be no room for 60 mgd in Lake Prince except during dry periods.
It would make more sense for Virginia Beach to develop a smaller project that can provide water sooner than the Gaston pipeline can. FERC recognizes that Virginia Beach can use 10 mgd of groundwater from its emergency wells without further construction and without adverse environmental impacts. There is only an occasional need to pump at a rate of 10 mgd; Norfolk has surplus to supply in excess of 32 mgd during most months.
Norfolk's safe yield during droughts is 78 mgd. The Virginian-Pilot recently reported Norfolk's director of public utilities' assertion that Norfolk consumption was holding firm at 22 mgd.
The next component for Virginia Beach, when the Norfolk surplus and its own existing wells are fully tapped, could be a 6-8 mgd brackish-groundwater-desalting facility. This is the kind of facility already selected by Suffolk, Dare County, Chesapeake and Newport News.
All of this can be done sooner, without hassle, and at considerably lower cost than the Gaston pipeline. How long is Virginia Beach going to insist that only Gaston water will do? Roanoke River Basin residents have been asking that question for years. It may be time for the residents of Virginia to get an answer. MEMO: Mr. Ruff represents the 61st District (Clarksville) in the Virginia
House of Delegates.
by CNB