The recent endorsement of a bi-state commission for stewardship of the Roanoke River Basin may delay action locally in dealing with problems associated with the long-term drought in the basin.
Outgoing Del. W.W. "Ted" Bennett (D-Halifax), relayed a sense of urgency when speaking of the "change in direction" taken at a December 17 meeting in which the bi-state concept was endorsed.
"A bi-state commission is needed, but our (Virginia) side needs to be rooted first, with a director in place," said Bennett.
Bennett added that the formation of a Virginia Roanoke River Basin Commission was needed first to deal with problems in the Commonwealth.
"It (the proposed bi-state commission) won't become effective until 2003, if the North Carolina Legislature appoints members," said Bennett.
"We have to deal with the immediate problems in Buggs Island Lake (low water level), siltation in the Dan, PCBs in the Staunton, and the lack of water in the Roanoke up to Roanoke County and the City of Roanoke.
"Also the policy of Virginia Power to draw down water whenever it wants, despite the drought," added Bennett.
The December 17 meeting, held in Danville, was attended by Virginia and North Carolina delegates, along with regulatory and local government officials, conservation group representatives and private citizens.
Those in attendance, with a show of hands, endorsed the bi-state commission concept.
Bennett introduced House Joint Resolution 149 in the Virginia legislature last year directing the State Water Commission to study the desirability and feasibility of establishing an intergovernmental structure to assist in stewardship of the basin.
Bennett has concerns not only about the proposed bi-state commission concept but also with the reduced number of members for each state serving on the commission.
"The Citizen's Advisory Committee was appointed under my bill to make a recommendation on the commission for the basin," said Bennett.
"It came up with with a recommendation for 14 citizen-type members-it hasn't gone to the General Assembly yet."
The bi-state proposal endorsed in Danville calls for nine voting members in each state, with legislators serving as ex-officio members.
"It disappoints me that they slowed it down, after the hue and cry for citizen members," Bennett said.
"I wish they would rethink it. If you let Virginia's commission stay at 14 as it was drafted, get it rooted and start it up, they could elect the nine out of 14 to the bi-state commission if it became viable.
Bennett continued to call for the establishment of a drought index to protect water flow throughout the basin.
"Fundamentally, we need a drought index in Virginia," Bennett urged.
"We need to test the proposition of whether or not the federal clean water act means what it says when it says waters intrastate are waters of the state.
"If that be so, then the state ought to be able to establish a drought index, so that water won't be drawn down below a certain stream level.
"Virginia Power and Virginia Beach would have to adhere to that, as well as anyone else in Virginia.
"Those problems have to be dealt with now. Every year that slips by, the abuse of the waters within the basin continue," said Bennett.
Bennett added it would have evolved to a bi-state commission, but that Virginia shouldn't have to wait until North Carolina does something.
Funding is also an issue with Bennett.
"I realize the budget problems for starting it up and getting funding for the staff this year, but the same problems would exist next year," Bennett continued.
"There's no indication the economy would be any better next year; the second year of the budget is always harder to break into."

The extended drought brought Roanoke River Basin issues to the forefront in 2001, and the Roanoke River Basin Association (RRBA) plans to emphasize drought management, economic development and basinwide management during the new year.
RRBA Executive Director Tom Brawner listed about a dozen accomplishments of the organization during 2001.
Primary among those were: ensuring public input into the formation of the Roanoke River Basin Commission; scrutinizing the efforts of Raleigh, Durham and Cary to build a pipeline to Kerr Lake, and making the public aware of these efforts.
Brawner also listed the RRBA's working actively in the Gaston/Roanoke Rapids hydropower relicensing proceedings, including a drought index that would limit withdrawals by Virginia Beach during periods of drought.
The RRBA also sponsored public forums on water quality, legislative and lower basin ecosystem issues in 2001, and sponsored the recent meeting in Danville, where Virginia and North Carolina legislators endorsed a bi-state commission approach to stewardship of the Roanoke River Basin.
Brawner also mentioned the RRBA's support of programs such as the Smith River cleanup in Henry County, a high school water quality testing program at Kerr Lake and eco-tourism efforts by Roanoke River Partners in the lower basin.
Brawner intends for the RRBA to continue serving as a basinwide news and information source through its web page at www.rrba.org and its quarterly newsletter, in addition to public forums.
"In 2002, we hope to continue these efforts, with particular emphasis on drought management, sustainable economic development, basinwide management of the watershed and stakeholder cooperation," said Brawner.
Brawner added that "many of these issues will be addressed in the Corps of Engineers' Section 216 Study of Kerr Dam, which will include those many areas whose hydrology and environmental health is affected by the operations of Kerr Dam.
"RRBA will continue to advocate that if a Roanoke River Basin Commission is to be formed, it should be formed correctly," said Brawner.
"That means it should be inclusive of a broad diversity of stakeholder interests in both the Virginia and North Carolina parts of the basin
...and should not operate not as another governmental agency, but as a forum in which citizens and government can reach consensus on the optimum way to manage and protect the complex Roanoke River Basin system."
Brawner said that he was impressed over the past year with the level of interest, concern and dedication it has seen from a host of governmental officials, conservation groups and private citizens in dealing with important watershed issues.
With those efforts and others, such as supporting and forming liaisons with new regional, cooperative watershed organizations such as the Upper Roanoke River Roundtable and Dan River Basin Associations, Brawner added the Roanoke River Basin will be better managed and protected for its citizens and for generations to come.

Stover Roark is retiring from the Virginia State Police after 25 years of keeping the highways safe.
"The ability to retire is a blessing unto itself.
"With the economy the way it is, it's wonderful to be able to retire and know you have something coming in," Roark said.
"I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it, but retiring is something you think about your whole career and when it gets here you don't know what to think," he said.
The state police veteran says that he's glad that he chose a career that allowed him to retire at such a young age.
But he still can't believe that it's really here.
"(Retiring) seems so far away at the beginning of your career, but as the years progress and it gets closer, you begin to look forward to it," he said.
While he is free to pursue other interests, he's not interested in starting a second career.
"I have accepted a part-time job at a Halifax law office, but I don't want a second career," Roark said.
After 25 years, there are so many anecdotes that it's impossible to remember them all.
"We will be sitting around the station house and someone will say 'you remember when...' and it will come back to you," he added.
"I remember when I had just been turned loose from school. It wasn't like it is now with a training period.
"Back then you finished school and went to work.
"I was riding around in the county, didn't know my way around, just learning my way.
"There was this car with an expired inspection sticker.
"I pulled him over and as I was writing him the ticket he kept asking me if I could do that.
"He kept asking me if I had the authority to give him a ticket.
"Thinking he was trying to be smart, I kind of showed him my state police patch and went ahead and wrote the citation.
"He signed the ticket and drove off.
"As I was driving away I got a little ways up the road and saw a Welcome To Virginia sign. I was in North Carolina when I wrote the ticket!" Roark said with a laugh.
There are many things that Roark will miss, he said.
"I think that most of all I'm going to miss the fellowship with the other troopers and all the members of the other agencies.
"It's like a family," he added.
Roark said that the local police and sheriff's departments have always been very willing to help the state police in time of need.
"Everyone knows what the other one is doing when you are at work.
"We all try to help and protect each other," the retiring state trooper said.
"I think that more than anything I will miss the camaraderie. This is not a 9-5 job," he added.
He turned his uniforms and state police belongings in to Appomatox headquarters last Friday.
"It will take some getting used to. Every room in the house had something from the state police in it," Roark said.
"It was kind of a sentimental moment.
"I went out the other day and there wasn't a state police car at the house. The yard looks empty now," he added.
Roark admits that there are a few things that he's not going to miss very much.
"I'm not going to miss getting calls at home all the time, and getting called to get up in the middle of the night when I'm on call," he admits.
He has been in some tight spots through the years.
"I was out on patrol once, and I happened upon a drug deal in progress.
"I had placed one individual under arrest and confiscated the drugs when another group converged on us," Roark remembers.
"I got on the radio and called for help.
"Todd Moser, from the Halifax County Sheriff's Office, was off work but he heard the call and left home in his street clothes to come help me," he said.
Roark says that at the time he ended up losing his prisoner and his handcuffs.
"But I got him a little later and managed to confiscate his car as well.
"My sergeant said that was a pretty good deal. A new BMW for a set of handcuffs," he said.
"That's just one example of how the agencies look after each other. That could have been a really bad situation."
From the beginning, it was the people that made the job special.
"When I came on board, I had the application, but hadn't filled it out.
"Trooper Charlie Jackson came over to the house when I was washing my car.
"He asked me if I had filled it out yet, and when I said no he made me sit down and fill it out in his car.
"That's how I applied for the job," he recalled.
Many of the people he worked with are fresh in his memory.
Roark is careful not to leave anyone out.
"Let's see, there was Bob Hawkins, B.W. Wright, Butch Torrence, these were some of the older guys that were there when I came on.
"Then there is Ray Smith, Harry Bosworth, Ray Fowler, Dick Stoneman, Jim Fitts, Bob Compton, Ed Tuck and Dillard McDowell," he remembered.
But there is a lot to be said for the younger guys, he added.
"They know what they are doing and how to do it.
"These guys we've got out there now are really level-headed. They have the character and qualities that make a good officer," Roark added.
There is one person that Roark would especially like to recognize.
"I'm really going to miss Jan Alspaugh. She's the one that runs the place. When she's out, everything backs up.
"She keeps us going, and she doesn't get enough credit," he noted.
"I appreciate everything that all these people, as well as others, have done for me," he continued.
There are still adjustments to be made.
"My wife had gotten used to having the remote all the time. Now I have to run her to the back room to watch t.v.," he said with a grin.
"I get the easy chair now."
Roark plans to keep busy with hunting and fishing.
"I told my wife that as soon as hunting season is over, some friends and I are going deep-sea fishing," he said.
His wife has other ideas.
She's told friends that she has about 25 years worth of chores lined up for him.
The state policeman is well aware of how lucky he is.
"There were a lot of men who didn't get here. Who didn't get a chance to retire and be able to do the things they enjoy."

By KEITH STRANGE
Tony Lee Cooper is a man on a mission.
Working full-time at Lasco, he is the married father of three teens, and is pursuing his bachelor's degree in organizational management.
But his passion lies in his other job.
Cooper is the CEO of Bridging The Gap, an organization that deals with issues such as teen pregnancy, poverty and illiteracy.
"We work with systems already in place, such as the juvenile courts, to teach young people age 14-24 how to deal with teen pregnancy," Cooper said.
"But we don't just teach them about their responsibility as a father, we teach them about the effects having an absent father will have on that child," he added.
Cooper has just received grants from the Virginia Fatherhood Campaign and the Southside Community Services Board to help fund his new program within Bridging The Gap.
"I saw that there was an enormous need to teach the emotional part of fatherhood, so I have started a program called The Father's Wound, where we teach fathers the role that they play in a child's life.
"Men have been able to walk away from fatherhood in the past, but today child support is making them take a look at being a father, being responsible.
"We have a generation of kids in which the money is in place to support a child, but the emotional needs of the child aren't being met," Cooper said.
The Father's Wound has put into place a facility to help fill those needs.
"We have a retreat twice a year to provide a bonding experience between young fathers and their children," he said.
Many of these fathers are angry.
By taking a look at the part of the individual that is angry, Cooper says that he has found that a lot of the young men had absentee fathers themselves.
"I want to teach the emotional part of being a father, to teach them how to be a responsible citizen so that they have the groundwork to be a father to their children," he said.
The group has informal meetings every Wednesday from 6-7 p.m. to discuss different subjects pertaining to fatherhood.
"We start with the basics. How to change a diaper, how to write a resume.
"But what we really want to teach these young men is how to open up to others, how to manage their anger," Cooper continued.
The first step when entering the program is to fill out an assessment form.
"This gives us an idea of how to better supply them with what they need," he said.
Sometimes the need is as simple as referring people to programs already in place, such as the GED program.
But because the program is staged in an informal setting, it gives the participants a chance to express what they are feeling, sometimes for the first time.
"They can come in and tell what they have been through. Many of these people have been in the court system, in prison. They have had rough lives," Cooper said.
After six weeks in the program, the client is given the opportunity to come back in and help the next group coming in.
Cooper feels this helps to reinforce what is learned as a participant.
The goal of the program, he said, is to be able to reach as many young people as possible across the county.
"I want to be able to provide these people with the necessary tools to deal with life.
"What we are doing goes beyond simple ethics and financial responsibility. We are teaching these people how to stop the cycle of illiteracy, poverty and single-parent families. We want our clients to become independent," Cooper claimed.
The program began a few years ago when Cooper was laid off of his job.
"I went to a meeting that was being held by the Department of Social Services that Wednesday night.
"I learned in that meeting that there were two 10-year-old girls in Halifax County who were pregnant," he said incredulously.
"That Friday I had an office."
He began learning from other similar organizations how to fund programs with grant money.
"All of this is being done with grant money and donations from businesses," Cooper added.
So far Bridging The Gap has helped 356 people.
"We have many success stories. Some of the people we have helped are now happily married, with jobs and are still helping us by being counselors," he said.
The program is getting recognition from other areas as well.
"Once the word got out about what we were doing, we started being recognized by the state agencies," he said.
Now Cooper is getting calls from other counties asking him to set up programs.
But the success of Bridging The Gap hasn't taken away from the primary goal.
"What we want to do, what we are here for, is to help young people get their lives in order."