THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030569
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 61 lines
The Vermont attorney general has said he knew exactly what he was doing when he took North Carolina's side in the Gaston dispute.
Late last month, Virginia Attorney General James S. Gilmore III wrote 40 attorneys general around the country, saying they might have made a mistake in signing a brief supporting North Carolina's fight against the Lake Gaston pipeline.
But this week, Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Vermont attorney general, wrote Gilmore that he was not misled by North Carolina's arguments. No other attorney general has responded to the Virginia letter.
Amestoy wrote that he stands by his position that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission overstepped its bounds by deciding that North Carolina should not have the right to veto or modify the pipeline project.
``The State of Vermont joined in this matter because we believe that the states - not FERC - have primary authority to determine whether federal licensing or permitting activities may affect water quality,'' Amestoy wrote in a letter dated Dec. 30 and received by Gilmore on Thursday.
Vermont does not have a problem with the pipeline, Amestoy continued, just with the legal precedent that FERC's decision sets.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is now considering North Carolina's challenge to the pipeline permit FERC issued last year. That permit allowed Virginia Beach to resume construction of the 76-mile tube, which is now about 75 percent complete.
Also in that case Thursday, Virginia Beach filed its response to North Carolina's charges and the briefs from the 40 attorneys general and the U.S. Justice Department.
Virginia Beach argues that FERC acted properly in issuing the pipeline permit. North Carolina does not deserve permitting power, according to city officials, because Virginia - where the pipeline is entirely located - already issued the necessary Clean Water Act permit.
North Carolina, the 40 states' attorneys general and the Environmental Protection Agency argued that North Carolina also deserved a voice in the dispute because the Lake Gaston dam sits in North Carolina and the flow of water over the dam will be reduced by the pipeline.
The U.S. Justice Department, the legal voice for the federal government, cut the argument down the middle. In a brief filed last month, the department said the pipeline would have an environmental impact downstream in North Carolina, but if the impact were as slight as the FERC has concluded, then Carolina did not merit permitting power over the project. The court has scheduled oral arguments for Feb. 4 on the dispute and is expected to rule this spring.
Virginia Beach has been trying for 14 years to build the pipeline to Lake Gaston on the North Carolina border. The city, which now buys all of its water from Norfolk, would get as much as 48 million gallons of water per day from the pipeline. Chesapeake would draw up to 10 million gallons per day, and Franklin and Isle of Wight County have options to take up to 1 million gallons per day each.
Pipeline construction is expected to be completed by the spring of 1998, although legal battles could still derail the plans.
North Carolina and Virginia residents along the Roanoke River upstream of the lake have fought the project, saying it would deprive them of a needed natural resource.