Chesapeake Bay Group Sues to Block NN Reservoir Work: The Foundation Objects to the State’s Reversal of Newport News’ King William Permit.
By Patrick Lynch, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
Feb. 17–NEWPORT NEWS — The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has filed a lawsuit challenging a decision to allow Newport News to continue work on the King William Reservoir.
The State Water Control Board in December agreed to extend Newport News Waterworks’ permit, which is necessary to do any work planning the 12.2-billion gallon reservoir.
The board previously denied the extension. Environmentalists and others cried foul, saying the board lacked the authority to reverse its original vote.
Last month, the foundation asked Department of Environmental Quality director David K. Paylor to hold a formal hearing on the permit reversal.
Paylor did not grant the formal hearing, DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden said.
The lawsuit, filed this week in Richmond Circuit Court, is a follow-up on the request for a hearing.
Hayden said the lawsuit will now go to the attorney general, whose office will file DEQ’s response.
“We’ll see where it goes in the courts,” he said.
The bay foundation asserts in the lawsuit that the State Water Control Board did not have the authority to reconsider its decision to deny a permit for the reservoir work. The board took up the vote again at the special request of Newport News officials.
The lawsuit asks the court to block the permit and to order DEQ to hold the formal hearing.
Newport News Waterworks has worked for more than a decade to plan the King William Reservoir, which would address long-range water needs for the Peninsula, city officials argue. Environmental organizations have long disagreed, saying the project is oversized and would cause significant environmental damage to wetlands and the Mattaponi River, where water would be drawn.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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