THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260288
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Hampton Roads cleared another hurdle in its efforts to build the Lake Gaston pipeline when a key federal agency refused to reconsider its approval of the project.
But North Carolina, which had requested the reversal, immediately challenged the project again in federal court.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in a 16-page decision released Monday, said North Carolina had failed to unearth new evidence or arguments that would cause the commissioners to reconsider their approval of the project issued in July.
The 76-mile pipeline would stretch from the lake to Norfolk's reservoirs in Isle of Wight county and eventually would bring 60 million gallons of water a day to Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach, which buys all its water from Norfolk, would take most of the water, but Chesapeake would get 10 million gallons a day, and Franklin and Isle of Wight County could also buy up to 1 million gallons of water each per day.
North Carolina and Virginia Beach have been battling over the pipeline for more than a decade.
An injunction blocking construction is still in effect, however. U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, who had tried to get the various parties to mediate their differences, has held up work until he reviews North Carolina's concerns.
Hogan has indicated he is likely to side with Virginia Beach. He will not rule on the merits of the pipeline, he has said, but only on whether the U.S. secretary of commerce inappropriately overruled North Carolina's objections to the project two years ago.
Hogan has said he will rule by Oct. 2.
North Carolina officials said they filed an appeal of FERC's decision Monday to the U.S. District Court of Appeals.
In responding to Friday's decision, North Carolina asserted that Virginia Beach's right to the water expires in five years and that the application process with FERC would then have to begin again.
Virginia Beach's Gaston project manager, Thomas M. Leahy III, said this was true but that such relicensing was routine.
In its request that FERC overturn itself, North Carolina was joined by the Sierra Club and an association of communities, homeowners and business leaders along the Roanoke River, which drains into the lake. Both organizations have fought the pipeline for years.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE by CNB