DATE: Tuesday, February 25, 1997            TAG: 9702250004

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   41 lines

SUFFOLK VOTE WATER WOES SUFFOLK CITY COUNCIL DIVES INTO THE WATER FIGHT.

After many years of watching two giants (Virginia Beach and Norfolk) spar, the city of Suffolk has suddenly joined the regional fray. And the battleground is - not surprisingly - water.

Last week Suffolk City Council decided to approve a permit Norfolk needed move and expand a pumping station in Suffolk to treat Lake Gaston water. At the same time, Suffolk voted to allow Norfolk the permit only if it would give up its at-will use of four deep-water wells in Suffolk.

With one hand Suffolk giveth, with another it taketh away.

This is just the latest unpleasant development in what passes for regional cooperation in Hampton Roads and it simply must stop before all parties are in court in another costly and protracted legal battle.

How much better would it be for representatives of all cities in the metropolitan area to sit around a table and work out a reasonable and equitable sharing of water - the region's most precious and scarcest resource?

The tangled web of water politics in Hampton Roads comes down to this: Virginia Beach and Suffolk have no significant water of their own. Norfolk has water that it now sells to Virginia Beach. When the Lake Gaston pipeline is running, Norfolk will have excess water and Suffolk would like to buy some - at a low price.

By tying the issuance of permits to unreasonable - possibly unenforceable - demands, Suffolk seems to be trying to negotiate a great deal on cheap water. But this may backfire. Norfolk will likely be compelled to challenge Suffolk's move in court. Virginia Beach may join its old adversary in court, or it may let Norfolk duke it out alone. If Suffolk prevails, Virginia Beach would have a legal action against Norfolk because of a contract between those two cities for Norfolk to treat Virginia Beach's the Lake Gaston water.

Either way, the region is now facing another acrimonious and unwarranted dispute over water. It would benefit the region enormously if the problem could be solved across a conference table rather than in a courtroom.

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