Suffolk, Isle of Wight to pay millions for water from Norfolk

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim announced a 40-year agreement Friday to sell surplus water to Suffolk and Isle of Wight County in a deal that could eventually give Norfolk up to $6 million annually.

A 3-mile pipeline will be built and will begin sending 3 million gallons of water a day to the western localities in 2014, according to the agreement.

Suffolk will receive 75 percent of the water and will pay that same portion of the cost. The total cost will begin at $1.2 million and gradually grow with the amount of water sold. The payments will begin this year.

Officials from Isle of Wight and Suffolk said their current water supplies have not hampered the development of their communities, but they said securing a long-term supply was vital for future growth.

Suffolk Mayor Linda Johnson said the deal was a matter of strategic long-range planning for her fast-growing city. "It's not that we had an immediate need today," she said.

The deal will amount to about $180 million in today's dollars for Norfolk over the life of the agreement, not accounting for inflation, said Kristen Lentz, Norfolk's director of utilities. The deal also includes a reservation fee that will equal 20 percent to 25 percent of the sales fee, she said.

The elected officials who joined Fraim for the announcement Friday praised the deal as a strong example of regional cooperation.

Tom Wright, a member of Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors and member of the Western Tidewater Water Authority, said the localities had negotiated for almost three years. He acknowledged that Norfolk's position gave it a lot of leverage.

"They had the water," Wright said. "We didn't have anything but the money."

Norfolk will eventually send up to 15 million gallons of raw water a day through the new pipeline to be treated in Suffolk. Fraim said that will still leave his city with a siz able surplus, even in drought conditions.

"It will not stress the system," he said.

Norfolk benefits from an extensive reservoir system, some of which was created more than a century ago. It includes a series of lakes and rivers from Virginia Beach to Western Tidewater. The city also sells water to Chesapeake and the U.S. Navy, and it treats water for Virginia Beach.

Suffolk uses about 7.5 million gallons of water a day, said Al Moor, the city's director of utilities. Bonds will pay for the capital costs associated with the new agreement, while user rates will pay for the operational costs, he said.

The Western Tidewater Water Authority still must present the new arrangement to its member localities for approval, Johnson said. Suffolk and Isle of Wight formed the authority in 1998 to find and share new water sources.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com