THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260363
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
In another effort to block the Lake Gaston pipeline, the North Carolina House of Representatives will consider a measure today that would give North Carolina more explicit control over water within its boundaries.
Virginia Beach officials say the proposal would do nothing. North Carolina contends it would help sideline a Virginia Beach offensive and is part of their strategy to fight the pipeline on every possible front.
A North Carolina House committee is scheduled to decide today whether to add a clause to an already approved Senate bill to ``reserve and allocate to itself . . . all right to the water located in those portions of Kerr Lake and Lake Gaston that are in the state.''
If it is approved by the committee, the revised bill will return to the North Carolina Senate for final consent.
The 76-mile pipeline, which Virginia Beach has been trying to build for more than a dozen years, would tap into Lake Gaston on the Virginia side of the state line, but most of the lake lies in North Carolina.
Carolina officials said the measure is intended to counter Virginia Beach's argument that state law should take precedence over a federal law North Carolina has tried to use to stop the pipeline project.
If Virginia Beach is successful in persuading the courts to put more weight on Virginia state law than on a federal law that contradicts it, then North Carolina wants to have its own state law in place to counter Virginia's, officials said.
Thomas M. Leahy III, pipeline project manager for Virginia Beach, was unimpressed by the proposed measure.
``So what,'' Leahy said. ``I think it would be like me going out and saying I want to pass a bill saying the money in my bank account is mine.''
More than 70 percent of the water in Lake Gaston and Kerr Lake drains from Virginia, he said, so Virginia Beach should be allowed to take 1 percent of that flow.
``It would be difficult to say the state of Virginia doesn't have a right to some portion of the water,'' he said.
Leahy dismissed the legislative maneuver as part of North Carolina's larger effort to ``intimidate'' Virginia Beach back to the settlement table.
Hopes for a peaceful settlement evaporated late last month amid political squabbling between Republican Gov. George F. Allen, state Democratic leaders, Virginia Beach officials and legislators from Southside and Northern Virginia.
North Carolina has tried to pressure Virginia Beach and others to try again to win state support.
North Carolina has said it will drop its 12 1/2-year opposition to the pipeline only if the Virginia legislature agrees to an interstate compact that prohibits further withdrawals from Lake Gaston without Carolina approval.
The North Carolina General Assembly, which was supposed to adjourn on June 30, is still in session. It could approve a settlement at any time before it adjourns for the year. The Virginia legislature would have to be called into special session if an agreement is to be approved this year.
Virginia Beach Deputy City Attorney William M. Macali said the proposed bill would have no real impact, except perhaps to draw out the legal wranglings over the project.
``This just provides another forum for them to file more pleadings which are totally without merit, but which may result in some delay,'' he said.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE WATER SUPPLY PLAN by CNB