NORFOLK — Mayor Kenneth Cooper Alexander and Virginia Beach Mayor Louis Jones announced a new water agreement that provides Virginia Beach residents with water for future growth, while renewing and improving Norfolk’s quality water system, according to a news release from the City of Norfolk.
After a public debate that began in the mid-1970s, the City of Virginia Beach decided to build a pipeline to an existing system of hydroelectric and flood control impoundments on the Roanoke River, which straddles the North Carolina and Virginia border.
The project can transfer 60 million gallons a day of water from Lake Gaston to existing reservoirs in southeast Virginia, according to the city’s website.
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In July 1993, Virginia Beach and Norfolk signed a long-term water services contract for treating and transporting water from Lake Gaston in North Carolina, which supplies water reservoirs in Southeastern Virginia. The pipeline project was put into formal service on Jan. 1, 1998, according to the city’s website.
The new agreement between Norfolk and Virginia Beach continues the cities’ water partnership that has been in place for more than 20 years.
Jones and Alexander formally announced their renewal of the partnership Thursday at the Moore’s Bridges Water Treatment Plant in Norfolk.
