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A brief comment at this month’s Lake Gaston Association (LGA) meeting didn’t seem to draw much attention, but it could lead to another battle in the war for water in North Carolina. It might even lead to the same kind of legal fight and local battle that surrounded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval of the Virginia Beach Pipeline.
During the meeting Pete Deschenes brought up the inter-basin transfer of water. In a subsequent interview he said that inter-basin transfer of water was not in the immediate conversation, but is always part of the background for solving water problems.
In the past the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Army Corps of Engineers have talked about inter-basin transfer of water from the Roanoke River Basin. Lake Gaston is part of that basin. While this is not high on their list of solutions it is difficult to not bring it up when you consider the massive drought in North Carolina and Virginia and the difficulty in providing water to many cities.
Back in the late 1990’s they called it a 100-year drought, now they have mentioned a 500-year drought. The problem is no one knows how long it will last and how fast officials might have to move to ensure water to residents of both states.
At the same meeting Deschenes informed the group that North Carolina has been reluctant to move forward with what is known as the Bi-state Advisory Commission. The commission was an offshoot of the water battle over the Virginia Beach Pipeline. The main purpose of the commission was to stay informed about the water problems and to offer advice on how best to deal with water problems between the two states.
In one regards North Carolina is facing an almost identical situation today. Except in this case the state is on the side Virginia Beach was on during the last battle. North Carolina is allowing two cities to take up to 10 million gallons per day of water from the Catawba River basin. South Carolina does not want this to happen because it would mean less water would be flowing downstream to them. South Carolina has taken the case to federal court.
In the mean time South Carolina has asked North Carolina to set up a Bi-State commission to work on water problems.
The ongoing drought problems in the Raleigh-Durham area are right at our back door. One of the solutions to their water problems would be tapping into Kerr Lake. As recently as two weeks ago the idea of taking water from Kerr to help the Triangle area was mentioned again. The Roanoke River Basin Association (RRBA) is fighting this and making their concerns about it known to the state politicians that will make the decisions.
In an email sent to Representative Lucy Allen, co-chair of the NC Environmental Review Commission, Vice President of the RRBA Gene Addesso asked, “Is it wise to over develop in an area without critical infrastructure support and then look outside your region to resolve the problem? This was clearly the case in the Virginia Beach pipeline case. The RRBA feels these actions are tantamount to someone “putting their straw in someone else’s drink.”
This is not the first time the RRBA has reminded the powers to be about their concerns over water withdrawals from the basin. The RRBA has been deeply involved and in the forefront of fighting any water removal from the basin for more than forty years. They are especially concerned about any inter-basin transfer of water. According to published reports the RRBA let everyone know in June of 2000 that representatives of the cities of Raleigh, Durham, Cary and of Granville County met on June 26 at the offices of Triangle J. Council of Governments in Raleigh to discuss options for the long-term water needs of the Triangle metropolitan area.
According to Penny Schmitt, chief of public affairs for the Wilmington District of the Army Corps of Engineers, there are no discussions of transfer water from Kerr Lake to the Triangle area. She did tell the Observer that all options are being discussed about the use of local triangle water sources. She also added that the Corps is not the final decision maker in this issue.
The property owners around Lake Gaston are concerned about water withdrawals and the impact it could have on property values. It could be best summed up in the recent RRBA letter, “Finally, the one common thread to be found in all these [water] projects is that they inherently and almost without exception approve the movement or transfer of a critical resource from a needy, under developed, less economically endowed region, to one more powerful and likely over developed. Sadly when opposed, the politically and economically powerful groups seem to prevail regardless of fairness and rights.”
Water wars have been heating up throughout the country for several years. California proved years ago that it is possible to drain the water from one area. Their water wars started almost 100 years ago. The more Los Angeles grew the more water they needed. Their problems now extend throughout the west.
Water wars are now being fought in states as far north as Michigan and as far south as Florida. The loudest and most heavily fought wars are over the inter-basin transfer of water. Sometimes the basins are interstate or sometimes they are intrastate.
The greatest concern with the inter-basin transfer is that once water is taken from one basin it is not returned. This means less water downstream and it will have an impact on everyone and everything from the point of withdrawal downstream.
It took the city of Virginia Beach only 10 years before it could start constructing a pipeline for water from Lake Gaston because of ongoing battles over inter-basin transfer of water. At that time North Carolina joined with the Roanoke River Basin Authority in trying to stop Virginia Beach from taking up to 60 million gallons of water a day from the Lake. (Technically the water comes from Kerr Lake and Gaston is considered part of the pipeline.) In the end they still won the war.
North Carolina was concerned over the precedent that transferring this much water from one basin to another would set. They told the FERC that because North Carolina was where the water flowed into the ocean that they should be able to have some control over how the water was used in the upstream area of Virginia.
When North Carolina lost that battle they agreed to work with Virginia to set up a Bi-state Advisory Commission to deal with water problems between the two states.
Virginia did set up the commission, but they have had only a few meetings and are not active at the present. North Carolina also established the commission but they have never had a meeting. There has been no indication that one will be set up with South Carolina.
North Carolina has set up an Environmental Review Commission they are instructed to conduct a comprehensive study of water resources in North Carolina. The committee is presently conducting a water allocation study for North Carolina. They will hold the last of their public comment meetings today in Raleigh and on Thursday, Jan. 24 in Wilmington.
The committees Potential Issues for Water Allocation Study Guide does note mention looking into the possibility of limiting growth in areas that water supply could be a problem.
The only questions they make regarding inter-basin transfers are: How difficult should it be to get permission to move water from one river basin to another; and what should the process be?
The war over water is just starting in this area but the more the pot simmers the sooner it could boil over. It cost the RRBA millions of dollars to fight VB in its attempt to keep the water in the RR Basin; this could be just a drop in the bucket of what it might cost to fight North Carolina on the same issue.
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