THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602150170
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
In a recent Beacon editorial (Another View, Jan. 19), Ms. Stephanie Foster of Lasker, N.C., criticizes the Lake Gaston Project because she believes the withdrawal will cause water levels in Lake Gaston to decline and that tourism around the lake will suffer as a result. Unfortunately, Ms. Foster has been misinformed. Not even North Carolina has ever claimed that the Lake Gaston Project will impact lake levels in Lake Gaston.
The city's project will not draw upon storage in Lake Gaston. It will take water that would otherwise flow out of Lake Gaston. Lake Gaston is replenished by fresh water inflows at an average annual rate of 5,200 million gallons per day. Even during a drought of record, inflow to Lake Gaston averages 2,100 mgd. The maximum withdrawal of 60 mgd will reduce downstream releases by about 1 percent on average and 3 percent during a major drought, but it will have no impacts upon water levels in Lake Gaston.
The city has contracted for the use of storage in Kerr Reservoir, upstream of Lake Gaston. During droughts, the city will draw upon this storage so that the project will have no impact on minimum downstream flows. Use of that storage will lower water levels in Kerr by about 3 inches during a major drought. Kerr Reservoir is a federal flood control reservoir and fluctuates between 12 and 22 feet per year.
The Lake Gaston Project is one of the most intensively studied and contested projects that has ever survived the federal regulatory gauntlet. It has been through six environmental reviews by three federal agencies and four judicial reviews by three federal courts. None of those reviews indicated that the project would affect water levels in Lake Gaston, nor did they document any significant impact upon any part of the environment. Project opponents have to face the reality that even with the massive resources of the State of North Carolina behind them, they have not been able to convince even one of six independent federal agencies or courts of the merits of their arguments.
Project opponents learned long ago that the facts would not support their opposition to the project. However, they also learned that facts were not needed to engage in regulatory gridlock.
Nationally prominent defense attorney Robert Shapiro has been quoted as saying that a good way to manipulate public opinion is to repeat a theory until ``the repetition almost becomes a fact'' (U.S. News and World Report, Sept. 26, 1994). Project opponents did not invent this concept, but they have mastered it.
Thomas M. Leahy
Water Resources Manager
City of Virginia Beach by CNB