THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997            TAG: 9701160320
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   43 lines

BEACH WINS GASTON SUPPORT OF 3 ENERGY TRADE GROUPS

Three energy-related trade associations have filed a court brief siding with Virginia Beach in its battle to build the Lake Gaston pipeline.

In a brief filed last week but received by Virginia Beach Wednesday, the groups said that any other verdict by the court would be harmful to their industry.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has been considering North Carolina's challenge to the Lake Gaston pipeline since last September. North Carolina appealed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to allow construction of the 76-mile pipeline.

The court will hear oral arguments Feb. 4 and is expected to decide on the case in the spring or summer.

Forty attorneys general from across the country have already filed briefs siding with North Carolina; Virginia Attorney General James S. Gilmore III took up Virginia Beach's cause; and the U.S. Department of Justice came down somewhere in the middle.

At issue is whether North Carolina should have the right to veto, modify or sign off on the project. North Carolina, a 14-year pipeline foe, says it should have permitting rights because the pipeline will affect the flow of water over the Lake Gaston dam, which sits in North Carolina.

Virginia Beach, which would get as much as 48 million gallons of water per day from the pipeline, says only Virginia's approval was needed because the pipe will run entirely north of the state line. The state gave that approval several years ago.

The utility groups argued that giving permitting power to a second state would contradict federal water laws and ``erode'' the process of amending licenses to hydroelectric projects like Virginia Power's Lake Gaston dam.

Giving two states permitting power would ``invite conflicting . . . requirements and disagreements between states,'' according to the brief. ``This is precisely what Congress sought to avoid.''

The American Public Power Association, the Edison Electric Institute and the National Hydropower Association serve three-quarters of the country's electric customers, represent publicly owned electric utilities and operate hundreds of hydroelectric projects.

KEYWORDS: LAKE GASTON PIPELINE