Dear Folks,

 As predicted, Newport News isn't quitting.  They have asked for a rehearing, which is not a legal option.  We hope the SWCB will not be swayed, and will stay with their original vote to deny the 5-year permit extension.  They voted 6-1 to deny on Sept.

 This tactic is looking like "deja vu, all over again", when 3 years ago NN came after the VMRC for their vote to deny the permit.

 We need everyone to come, if at all possible.  NN thinks they can fill the room with supporters, but that remains to be seen.

 I have also copied the RTD article in Monday's paper, Dec. 4.

 --Tyla

  Save the Mattaponi River

Justice for the Mattaponi

 

Please attend Important meeting of the State Water Control Board

WHEN:            Thursday, Dec 14. Our hearing starts at 1 PM. Arrive at 12:30 PM to get a seat!   Go to www.savethemattaponi.org

 

WHERE:         General Assembly Bldg, House Room C (1^st Floor)

                        9th and Broad Sts, Richmond . VA 23219

 

WHY:               The State Water Control Board will be voting AGAIN on a request by Newport News to extend its permit for the King William Reservoir for five years.  The Alliance to Save the Mattaponi and the Sierra Club oppose this extension.  If the extension is denied, Newport News must go through a full permit renewal process in 2007 which could stop the project.

 

 For more info, email or call my home phone at 804-275-6476

 --Tyla

____________________________

Fight on reservoir isn't over yet
Newport News wants state water board to reconsider rejection

BY REX SPRINGSTON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Dec 4, 2006

There is no quit in Newport News .

In its effort to develop a controversial reservoir in King William County , the city wants a second chance to argue its case before the State Water Control Board.

Environmentalists oppose such a do-over.

In September, the board cast a 6-1 vote against the city, which has been pursuing the reservoir for nearly two decades.

The board has never reconsidered a case after voting it down, said Bill Hayden, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

But reconsideration of the reservoir vote would be appropriate and legal, Hayden said. The DEQ provides staff for the board.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says a do-over would violate state law and set a bad precedent.

"We will never know when things are final," said Joseph Tannery, the environmental group's staff attorney in Virginia .

If you lose a case before the board, Tannery said, you can challenge the decision in court or in a formal, court-like hearing.

The board's chairman, Shelton Miles of Campbell County, sounded agreeable to reconsidering the issue when the panel meets Dec. 14.

"If they want to bring it up again, fine," he said. "I'd rather they bring it up in a reconsideration process than in a more adversarial fashion," such as a formal hearing.

Newport News says it needs the $235 million, 12.2-billion-gallon reservoir to provide drinking water for a growing Peninsula . Opponents say the reservoir would damage too many wetlands and trample the rights of the Mattaponi Indians, among other objections.

The water board, along with other duties, issues permits to build and operate reservoirs. The permits must be renewed periodically. A permit granted Newport News in 1997 expires in December 2007.

The permit requires the city to conduct various studies, including one detailing how it would come up with 806 acres of wetlands to make up for the 403 acres that would be destroyed.

City officials say they cannot prepare the studies by next December, so on Sept. 6 they asked the board to extend the permit for five years.

The DEQ staff recommended approval of the extension, but the board denied it. The vote did not kill the reservoir, but it appeared to put the project in jeopardy.

If the board had extended the permit, chairman Miles said, Newport News may have started construction during the extension period, making the project virtually a done deal before the permit underwent the more vigorous renewal process a few years later.

If the board grants the extension this time, Newport News Mayor Joe Frank said, the city will pledge to do no construction during the extension period.

Should the board take up the issue, the DEQ staff is recommending approval of a three-year extension that could grow to five years under certain conditions.

At some point, Miles said, the reservoir proposal should undergo a thorough state review. Technology and other things have changed since the permit was issued in 1997, he said.

Newport News officials say the project has already been thoroughly studied.

The reservoir would be created by damming Cohoke Mill Creek, about 35 miles northeast of Richmond , and pumping in water from the Mattaponi River .

Contact staff writer Rex Springston at
rspringston@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6453.