Something, at least
Feb. 17th, 2004 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyon(Thanks to someone on the Virginia_First_Peoples list for pointing this out; crossposted to my journal and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
nativeamerican)
I've been keeping up with this over the past year or so, threatening my generally low blood pressure.
Reservoir Measure is killed
Newport News mayor made request, saying city is trying new tack
Reservoir Measure is killed
Newport News mayor made request, saying city is trying new tack
BY REX SPRINGSTON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Feb 17, 2004
A Senate committee pulled the plug yesterday on a proposal to speed construction of a controversial King William County reservoir.
The Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee tabled a bill - effectively killing it - that would give Newport News the right to draw water from the Mattaponi River for the reservoir.
Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, sponsored the bill at the request of Newport News, which wants to build the lake.
But Newport News Mayor Joe S. Frank, in a letter to Wagner on Friday, asked that the bill be tabled. The city, Frank wrote, is focused now on talks with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, an agency that rejected the city's permit request for the reservoir last May.
"At this point, we are encouraged by the progress being made in discussions with the VMRC re- garding a process by which our permit application can be reconsidered," Frank wrote.
The bill faced rough going. A House committee tabled a similar proposal Wednesday, effectively killing it. Tonight is the deadline for Senate and House bills to switch sides.
The battle over the proposed reservoir has been under way for more than a decade. The city says it needs the lake in King William, at a site a 45-mile drive from Richmond, to provide water for a growing Peninsula population.
Opponents, including the Mattaponi Indians and several environmental groups, say the lake would damage the river, flood more than 400 acres of prime wetlands and erode the Indians' centuries-old ties to the river.
After two days of hearings, the VMRC rejected the project on grounds that an intake pipe in the Mattaponi could hurt the river's struggling shad population.
Newport News sued, and a judge said the agency should hold another, more formal, hearing.
Now, Newport News and the VMRC are trying to reach a settlement in which a hearing would be held without a formal court order. The agency wants to avoid a court order.
Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta, voted for the reservoir bill Feb. 5 when a subcommittee endorsed it 3-2. After the meeting yesterday, Hanger said he thought keeping the bill alive helped speed the talks between the city and the VMRC.
"I think we were not forcing, but encouraging, some resolution" of the issue, Hanger said.
Also yesterday, the Senate's natural resources committee:
* Rejected a bill, sponsored by Sen. Martin E. Williams, R-Newport News, to reduce the VMRC's role in deciding issues such as the reservoir.
* Endorsed a bill that would establish as law the state's policy of not charging fees to businesses that build structures such as docks in state waters. Collection of the fees stopped in 1988 while the issue was being studied and never resumed.
Some people say the fees should be charged because the businesses are taking over public waters - places people could be boating, fishing or skiing.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Bill Bolling, R-Hanover.
Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com
Times-Dispatch staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this report.
nativeamerican)I've been keeping up with this over the past year or so, threatening my generally low blood pressure.
Reservoir Measure is killed
Newport News mayor made request, saying city is trying new tack
Reservoir Measure is killed
Newport News mayor made request, saying city is trying new tack
BY REX SPRINGSTON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Feb 17, 2004
A Senate committee pulled the plug yesterday on a proposal to speed construction of a controversial King William County reservoir.
The Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee tabled a bill - effectively killing it - that would give Newport News the right to draw water from the Mattaponi River for the reservoir.
Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, sponsored the bill at the request of Newport News, which wants to build the lake.
But Newport News Mayor Joe S. Frank, in a letter to Wagner on Friday, asked that the bill be tabled. The city, Frank wrote, is focused now on talks with the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, an agency that rejected the city's permit request for the reservoir last May.
"At this point, we are encouraged by the progress being made in discussions with the VMRC re- garding a process by which our permit application can be reconsidered," Frank wrote.
The bill faced rough going. A House committee tabled a similar proposal Wednesday, effectively killing it. Tonight is the deadline for Senate and House bills to switch sides.
The battle over the proposed reservoir has been under way for more than a decade. The city says it needs the lake in King William, at a site a 45-mile drive from Richmond, to provide water for a growing Peninsula population.
Opponents, including the Mattaponi Indians and several environmental groups, say the lake would damage the river, flood more than 400 acres of prime wetlands and erode the Indians' centuries-old ties to the river.
After two days of hearings, the VMRC rejected the project on grounds that an intake pipe in the Mattaponi could hurt the river's struggling shad population.
Newport News sued, and a judge said the agency should hold another, more formal, hearing.
Now, Newport News and the VMRC are trying to reach a settlement in which a hearing would be held without a formal court order. The agency wants to avoid a court order.
Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr., R-Augusta, voted for the reservoir bill Feb. 5 when a subcommittee endorsed it 3-2. After the meeting yesterday, Hanger said he thought keeping the bill alive helped speed the talks between the city and the VMRC.
"I think we were not forcing, but encouraging, some resolution" of the issue, Hanger said.
Also yesterday, the Senate's natural resources committee:
* Rejected a bill, sponsored by Sen. Martin E. Williams, R-Newport News, to reduce the VMRC's role in deciding issues such as the reservoir.
* Endorsed a bill that would establish as law the state's policy of not charging fees to businesses that build structures such as docks in state waters. Collection of the fees stopped in 1988 while the issue was being studied and never resumed.
Some people say the fees should be charged because the businesses are taking over public waters - places people could be boating, fishing or skiing.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Bill Bolling, R-Hanover.
Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com
Times-Dispatch staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this report.
