DATE: Monday, May 5, 1997                   TAG: 9705050054

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   37 lines

SIERRA CLUB OPPOSES KING WILLIAM RESERVOIR

The Sierra Club fears the proposed King William Reservoir will encourage new development on the Peninsula so the national environmental group is opposing the reservoir as part of its campaign against urban sprawl.

The club's Virginia campaign will also focus on the rapidly growing Washington suburbs.

``It was clear that from Los Angeles to Atlanta, and from Minneapolis to Tampa, people were concerned with the uncontrolled growth that was just chewing up our countryside, increasing air pollution and causing congestion,'' said Glen Besa, the club's regional representative.

The connection between the club's anti-sprawl campaign and the reservoir seems shaky to David Morris, planning and programs director for Newport News Waterworks, the reservoir's lead developer. Fighting sprawl should mean encouraging development in places where the infrastructure is already in place, Morris said.

In a statement released Friday, Barry DuVal, president of the Hampton Roads Partnership, said, ``The Sierra has done some good things in the past, but their characterizations of the reservoir project are misguided and inaccurate.

``This is a `smart growth' project,'' he said. ``It encourages use of existing infrastructure in developed areas and discourages the very unplanned growth the Sierra Club claims to target as (its) cause.''

The proposal calls for creating a 6-mile-long reservoir running diagonally across King William County. It would flood 524 acres of wetlands and 1,457 acres of upland forest.

The water would serve Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg and the counties of James City, York and New Kent. The reservoir would get up to 75 million gallons a day from the Mattaponi River.

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