DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704270070

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                      LENGTH:   43 lines

DEQ TO DELAY PUSH FOR PERMITS FOR RESERVOIR A SECOND PUBLIC HEARING WILL ALLOW TIME FOR SUPPORTERS, OPPONENTS TO AIR VIEWS.

State officials plan to wait two months before pushing for a permit to build the proposed King William Reservoir, but they said the delay is not related to an Indian protest of the project.

Mattaponi Indians have objected to the proposed reservoir, saying it violates two 17th-century treaties that created a three-mile buffer zone around their 150-acre reservation, which borders the Mattaponi River.

Some opponents think the state should wait until Attorney General Jim Gilmore responds to the Indian claims, but Department of Environmental Quality senior adviser Hobey Bauhan said those questions are outside the DEQ's scope because the permit process deals only with environmental issues.

Newport News Waterworks says the reservoir is needed to provide a steady supply of drinking water on the Peninsula through 2040.

The delay will allow for another public hearing on the matter, DEQ Director Tom Hopkins said. On March 31, several politicians were cut off when the hearing officer was implored to enforce his three-minute time limit.

``I just think that both sides need to have an opportunity to air their views,'' Hopkins said in announcing plans for the hearing. ``It's my understanding that at the hearing on the 31st, that didn't occur.''

Other opponents of the reservoir have said the state should not issue a permit before the public has had a chance to read and comment on the DEQ's environmental impact report, and Hopkins said that criticism also played a role in the department's decision to delay the process.

DEQ will use the time to provide more information to the State Water Control Board, the citizen board that will decide whether to issue the permit. DEQ had planned to finish a draft permit by Tuesday.

The state permit is one of two Newport News Waterworks needs to build the 1,526-acre reservoir. The other would come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has extended its public comment on the report to late May.

The corps' delay would not hurt the project because the federal permit won't be issued for several more months, project manager David Morris said.

If the reservoir is approved, it would not be completed until 2005.

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