THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 6, 1996 TAG: 9607060009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 51 lines
The June 21 letter from Terry W. Maxwell, a resident of Norfolk, contained unsubstantiated and inaccurate allegations concerning the Lake Gaston project and Virginia Beach. It claimed that Virginia Beach is ``stealing'' Lake Gaston water (to wash luxury cars and fill swimming pools) at the expense of the environment in the Roanoke River Basin. It's unfortunate that many of your readers may be misinformed about the Lake Gaston project and about the nature and origin of our water system.
Only a small fraction of Norfolk's water supply originates locally, and most of that is taken from Virginia Beach. Most of Norfolk's supply is surface and groundwater taken from Suffolk and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties, including rivers that flow to North Carolina. At one time or another, all of these jurisdictions, and North Carolina, have objected to these water transfers, citing many of the arguments used against the Lake Gaston project.
As for the use of water, Virginia Beach residents will make the same beneficial uses of Lake Gaston water that Norfolk residents make of their extraterritorial transfers. The right to a guaranteed, safe and reliable water supply is the same in Virginia Beach as it is in Norfolk. If there is any other jurisdiction in this nation that has had to restrict or ration water as often or as severely as Virginia Beach has in the past two decades, we have not found it. Our residents have the lowest per-capita water use in the area, and our water-conservation efforts are ongoing.
With respect to environmental impacts, the lower Roanoke River below the Lake Gaston dam is the largest and most highly regulated water system in Virginia and North Carolina. At its maximum, Virginia Beach's transfer will amount to 4 percent or less of the river flow, during the driest month in 50 years. On the other hand, the recent study released by Norfolk suggests that Norfolk would take up to 100 percent of the flow of both the Blackwater and Nottoway rivers during dry times and that it would greatly increase long-term groundwater withdrawals from a severely stressed aquifer.
The Lake Gaston project is the most intensely studied project ever to survive today's federal and state environmental-review process. It has been the subject of six separate federal environmental studies and four federal lawsuits challenging the adequacy of those studies. Not a single study has indicated that the project would have any significant impact on the environment.
Norfolk's water system was developed before these regulatory processes existed and, therefore, escaped such scrutiny. However, many components of the Norfolk water system would not be in service today had they been subject to the same environmental reviews as the Lake Gaston project.
ROBERT K. DEAN
Member
Virginia Beach City Council
Virginia Beach, June 28, 1996 by CNB