Newport News has formally scrapped a proposed $300 million reservoir in King William County that drew opposition from environmentalists.

Newport News Mayor Joe Frank said today the city’s two-decade-long effort to develop a reservoir in King William County is dead.

RESERVOIR: Water Torture The saga of the King William reservoir sought by Newport News has dragged on so long it has begun to resemble a form of water torture. The latest drop to fall comes from Federal District Judge Henry Kennedy, who struck down the reservoir permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps granted that permit after its New York office ordered, upon the request of Gov. Jim Gilmore, an extension of an earlier review by the Norfolk office unfavorable to the project, which was delivered a decade ago.

The long-planned King William County reservoir just sprung a leak. A federal judge struck down the Army Corps of Engineers’ permit for the lake, saying in effect it would wreak too much destruction on the environment. The decision is a victory for reservoir opponents, who said the $250 million project would destroy more than 430 acres of wetlands, threaten rare American shad and flood Indian archaeological sites.

The decision is considered a key victory for environmentalists who opposed creating the water source for Newport News.

An environmental group is being allowed to challenge a state decision that aided plans for a much-debated reservoir in King William County. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia has overturned a 2007 Richmond Circuit Court decision that barred the group, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, from pursuing the challenge. The Richmond court said the group did not have the legal right to mount the challenge. The appeals court said the group did.

An environmental group is being allowed to challenge a state decision that aided plans for a much-debated reservoir in King William County. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia has overturned a 2007 Richmond Circuit Court decision that barred the group, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, from pursuing the challenge. The Richmond court said the group did not have the legal right to mount the challenge. The appeals court said the group did.