THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9512290276
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: 1995: YEAR IN REVIEW
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Lovers of green lawns and clean cars have new reason to hope this holiday season.
After nearly 13 years of waiting, construction of the Lake Gaston pipeline is set to begin in early 1996. Virginia Beach received its last building permit in the fall, and more than a mile of concrete pipe has already moved off an assembly line in a Maryland factory, destined for the project.
If the pipeline is completed in the spring of 1998, as scheduled, Virginia Beach will be able to lift water restrictions that have hampered lawn waterers and front yard car washers for four summers.
But like every year since serious talk of the 76-mile water pipeline began in 1982, the good news has been mixed with bad.
Opponents along the Roanoke River, who believe the pipeline would cost them their economic future, have sued again.
Other pending legal action could stall construction this spring, and add millions to the bottom line. In April, Virginia Beach committed to giving Norfolk $100 million to upgrade the treatment plant that would process any Lake Gaston water; and the city has already spent millions on construction and legal bills.
North Carolina, which claims the Lake Gaston water as its own, has renewed its promise to derail the project. Long-time rivals, North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms and Gov. Jim Hunt, are throwing the full weight of their offices behind the effort.
Their latest weapon is the settlement, negotiated in the first half of the year, between North Carolina and Virginia Beach. The settlement was supposed to end the dozen years of bickering and allow the pipeline to proceed as long as North Carolina and residents along the Roanoke River received some compensation.
It's only reasonable, North Carolina Senators have argued over the last month to their Washington colleagues, to go back to the peace agreement all sides accepted this summer. If it was fair then, it's fair now, they said.
Not true, Virginia Beach officials have countered, because the deal was cut before the city received its final construction permit and so it should be in a stronger bargaining position now.
With this kind of dialogue going on, that back yard well may be a good investment for the future.
- Karen Weintraub ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photo
Virginia Beach received its last building permit in the fall, and
more than a mile of concrete pipe has already moved off an assembly
line in a Maryland factory, destined for the project. But there's
always the big IF . . .
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON by CNB