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I am not a betting man, but even if I were, I wouldn’t place a bet if the odds were 297:1.
However, thirteen years ago I, along with several others, embarked on a journey where the odds of winning were 297:1. And the incredible news is that we won.
Last weekend I had the occasion to attend the Alliance to Save the Mattaponi’s celebration of the defeat of the King William reservoir. If you recall, this project would have taken up to 75 million gallons of water a day from the Mattaponi River and pipe it down to Newport News.
In and of itself, this would be disturbing, but what was most egregious is that the City of Newport News (through their consultants) “cooked the books” to create a water need that wasn’t there. Among other things, in its original water needs assessment, Newport News claimed that every new job created through the year 2040 would use as much water as a hospital worker.
Newport News also ignored saving the ratepayer money through conservation. And further ignored the savings of shaving peak load through desalinization.
In order to try to get this project passed, Newport News spent $57 million of taxpayer money. This figure includes $10 million in legal fees alone.
The Alliance to Save the Mattaponi spent $175,000.
I had the serendipity of being involved with the project throughout the years in different capacities. As Executive Director of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, I gathered with others to create the Alliance and got the ball rolling. I worked directly with the consultants who blew a hole in the original “cooked” needs assessment report.
A few years later as a member of the General Assembly, I worked closely with Delegate Harvey Morgan (R-Saluda) to defeat Newport News’ backdoor attempt to use the legislative process and their political power to overturn permits that had been denied.
In July 2006, the Virginian Pilot compared the Alliance’s fight to that of William Wallace’s during the 13th century, and said “…opponents stand no more chance than Wallace’s Scots stood against King Edward the Longshanks.”
Three years later, a district court sided with the Alliance and said that Army Corps of Engineers “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” when it issued a construction permit. (Remember, the Army Corps had originally denied this permit and only reversed its decision after then-Governor Gilmore was persuaded to use a little known procedure to appeal the denial despite no new evidence.)
The proposed King William reservoir was flawed economically and environmentally. At a later date, I will write a column on the timeline of the events. But for now, the moral of the story is not about defeating a reservoir. The moral is that despite the odds, facts prevail and the citizens can – and do - win.
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