Help Save the Mattaponi River
by Robert Russo
To residents of King William County, the words "King William Reservoir" represent a decade-long issue that refuses to go away, but many in the Richmond area have not yet heard of it. Since 1987 the city of Newport News has planned to divert the Mattaponi River into a 1500-acre lake to supply drinking water, sparking a long-standing legal battle against the Mattaponi indian tribe and several environmental agencies.
The Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit for this $230 million project, but was overturned by Gov. Jim Gilmore. Then the Virginia Marine Resources Commission denied theirs, and later recanted their decision. This "massive empoundment" will mean the destruction of approximately 500 acres of wetlands which the Southern Environmental Law Center calls "the largest authorized wetlands loss in the entire mid-Atlantic region in the 30-year history of the Clean Water Act".* The site is adjacent to the Mattaponi Indian Reservation who depend on the migration of shad as a food source, and the river is sacred to them as the source of all life.**
2005 marked the project's greatest legal victories beginning its design and implementation phase.*** Their permit however expires in 2007 requiring them to reapply, and they are seeking a five-year extension to avoid this potential setback, which makes now the time for petitions. In July the SELC, Sierra Club and Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed their suits citing several violations of environmental law. They claim that the water is not even needed, that it is an exagerration of more than double the projected amount.
In recent years, beach towns along the Eastern Seaboard have rejected the idea of seawater conversion technology because it would be too expensive. Now common sense would suggest a community surrounded by water consider its eventual self-sufficiency less costly than rearranging the mainland to drain its resources. The reservoir is a message that not only has this idea been scrapped, it will never be entertained.
One also wonders about the validity of a municipal plan that is twenty years old. The project's website begins with tranquil photos of wildlife, although a promise to construct artificial wetlands at various scattered sites throughout the state to meet the "no net loss" contingency required by law is hardly compensation for this damage.* For information on joining this petition go to http://www.pbase.com/image/25416332, or http://www.selcva.org/cases/king_william/casepage.htm. The official reservoir website is at http://www.kwreservoir.com/vicinity.shtml.
*http://www.selcva.org/cases/king_william/casepage.htm
**http://www.sacredland.org/historical_sites_pages/mattaponi_river.html
***http://www.kwreservoir.com/challenges.shtml
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