THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170367
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
North Carolina filed a legal brief in federal appeals court Tuesday, charging that the federal government should not have approved the Lake Gaston pipeline.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission overstepped its legal powers, according to the brief, by allowing Virginia Beach to avoid getting North Carolina's approval to build the pipeline.
In the 60-page legal report, North Carolina also argued that Virginia Beach does not need the pipeline to get an adequate supply of water, and that the FERC approved the pipeline too quickly, without doing adequate environmental tests.
North Carolina began this legal challenge late last year when it appealed the FERC's decision to issue a construction permit for the 76-mile pipeline. Virginia Beach has since begun work on the pipeline, which will run from the lake along the North Carolina border to Hampton Roads.
The FERC will file a response to North Carolina's arguments in 30 days, and Virginia Beach will respond by the beginning of June. The D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for September and a decision is expected about the end of the year.
The Roanoke River Basin Association, which represents residents in the area drained by Lake Gaston and is also challenging the Beach's right to build the pipeline, filed its own brief in the case.
It argued that the commission had ignored other, cheaper ways for Virginia Beach to get its water, such as tapping the entire region's brackish groundwater reserves, and said the study was based on old, erroneous data.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which could have filed a brief by Tuesday supporting either side's position, did not file.
``It's a good sign that EPA decided not to come in,'' Virginia Beach attorney Scott Hart said.
Hart said none of North Carolina's arguments are new and he doesn't expect the state to fare any better in this lawsuit than it has in any of the others over the last 13 years.
North Carolina and residents along the Roanoke River basin have fought the pipeline for years. Opponents worry that if Hampton Roads gets water from the Roanoke River it will also get development that might otherwise have moved south and west.
The pipeline is expected to deliver up to 60 million gallons of water a day, with as much as 48 million gallons of that going to Virginia Beach; 10 million gallons going to Chesapeake and 1 million gallons each for Franklin and Isle of Wight County.
The Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors is expected to decide Thursday whether to allow the pipeline to end within its borders, en route to a Norfolk-owned reservoir in Suffolk.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE APPEAL by CNB