THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609090026
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 62 lines
A U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., will hear arguments today in the bi-state battle over Lake Gaston water.
Although a decision may not come for several months, the three-judge panel is expected to spend about an hour listening to comments and quizzing lawyers from Virginia Beach, North Carolina and pipeline opponents in southwestern Virginia.
The panel already has 50,000 pages of records and 500 pages of briefs filed by both sides.
``It's a big event, but it's not exciting,'' said Virginia Beach counsel M. Scott Hart on Friday. ``Twenty-five minutes a side; no witnesses; just lawyers talking.''
The judges will be deciding two basic points: whether Virginia Beach needs North Carolina's permission to build the pipeline, and whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission studied the project adequately last year before approving it.
A North Carolina victory could add years to Virginia Beach's pursuit of the pipeline. A Virginia Beach triumph probably would lead opponents to try to challenge the project before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Opponents in North Carolina and Virginia have fought the proposed pipeline for 13 years, saying Virginia Beach's plans to get drinking water from the lake that straddles the North Carolina-Virginia border would damage the environment and rob residents along the Roanoke River of a precious resource.
``We would be surprised if we lost,'' Hart said. ``(The project) has been studiedenough, and we don't want any more delays.''
North Carolina officials declined to talk on the record about the case.
In their briefs, lawyers for North Carolina have argued that Virginia Beach cannot take water from Lake Gaston because North Carolina has not issued a permit for the withdrawal.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, they say, any change to a hydroelectric project such as the man-made Lake Gaston must be approved by the home state.
Virginia Beach contends it has already complied with the federal law, because it has a permit from Virginia, where the pipeline would tap the lake. North Carolina argues that because the dam that creates Lake Gaston is in its state, Virginia Beach must have its permission to build.
Pipeline opponents from the Virginia side of the border will argue the second point, that the federal energy commission was unjustified in issuing a permit last year for the pipeline.
They are expected to refer to a Norfolk-funded water study - released against Virginia Beach's wishes earlier this summer - that concludes Norfolk has more surplus water than the federal commission assumed. Opponents have argued that the study shows the federal commission relied on outdated and inaccurate information in granting permission for the pipeline.
Virginia Beach lawyers say that the commission based its decision on the best information available at the time and that it deserves to stand.
After the commission issued its permit, Virginia Beach resumed construction of the pipeline, which had been halted by a court injunction five years earlier. About 20 miles of the 76-mile pipeline is now complete.
The pipeline would funnel as much as 60 million gallons of water a day to Hampton Roads, divided among Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Franklin and Isle of Wight County.
KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON APPEAL by CNB