THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606210185
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ON THE STREET
SOURCE: BILL REED
LENGTH: 61 lines
``Everybody wants to get into the act,'' comedian Jimmy Durante used to lament.
That's the way Virginia Beach officials felt last week when a new study hit the streets saying Norfolk could - if it really wanted to - pump out 18 million more gallons of water per day than previously thought.
So, Beach officials wondered aloud, where was all that water three years ago when they were forced to sign a water contract with Norfolk that required inflated annual fee and service payments? Water was verrrry scarce back then, they were led to believe.
Norfolk is the Beach's only source of water at this point, you see, and the Beach has been anteing up serious change each year (plus penalty payments) - in the neighborhood of $23 million annually - to get that water for its 425,000 residents.
The Beach has been battling for 14 years for its own water source via a pipeline to Lake Gaston on the Virginia-North Carolina border. Their foes in this protracted battle have been North Carolinians and Southside Virginians who live down around Lake Gaston. These folks stubbornly continue to throw legal roadblocks in the path of the pipeline project. The lake water is their very own private property, they believe, and it's not to be shared with any sun worshippin', gum chewin', car washin', lawn sprinklin', lettuce nibblin', Beamer drivin' city slickers up north and east.
One of their main arguments against giving up Lake Gaston access has been that Virginia Beach, as well as the rest of South Hampton Roads, has ample water on hand to take care of the population well into the next century.
While the Beach was battling on one front and slowly gaining ground, Norfolk was doing a little sabotage of its own. Last year, our so-called neighbors threw an unexpected monkey wrench in what seemed like a done deal between the Beach and North Carolina that would have allowed pipeline construction to proceed months earlier than it did.
However, a subsequently favorable ruling by a federal environmental agency and refusals by federal judges to reconsider an injunction against the project has allowed the Beach to proceed with the pipeline construction. But, progress has been tenuous because of continued sniping from all quarters.
One recent potshot landed a little too close for comfort. That was the study commissioned by Norfolk and conducted by an out-of-town engineering firm.
In the eyes of Beach officials, the study is of dubious value and could seriously jeopardize the city's quest to secure its water source.
The reason: it gives the Beach's most intractable foes lots of ammo to go to court once again and shoot holes through arguments that the Beach will wither away into a sun-parched seaside ghost town without water from Lake Gaston.
What lawyer worth his salt wouldn't jump on that report like a robin on a June bug and wave it in front of a U.S. District Court judge's face at every opportunity? It's akin to serving up a gopher ball to Cleveland slugger Albert Bell. Anything over the fat part of the plate is going out of the park.
Without its own water source, the Beach will be forced to keep paying big bucks to cash-starved Norfolk for water from now 'til the next ice age.
But, hey, don't think there are any ulterior motives involved here. Perish the thought. Just to put our minds at ease, the Norfolk City Council last Tuesday passed a resolution saying the new study shouldn't effect the Lake Gaston pipeline efforts. by CNB