Stakeholders on both sides of a contentious water-flow issue involving Smith Mountain Lake will meet at the table once more -- this time at an invitation-only meeting that's closed to the public and the media.

The meeting, slated for Friday in Charlotte Courthouse, will give upstream and downstream interests another chance to negotiate the terms of a water-release protocol being proposed by Appalachian Power Co. as part of its re-licensing request.

On one side of the debate: Residents at Smith Mountain Lake want less water released from Leesville Lake, the lower of the two-reservoir hydroelectric project, especially during drought conditions.

On the other side: Those on the Staunton River downstream want a guaranteed amount of water released to protect fishing and recreation on the waterway -- an amount that could conflict substantially with what could happen at the lake.

Invitee John Lindsey, a Penhook resident who serves on the Virginia Roanoke River Basin Advisory Committee and Tri-County Lake Administrative Commission executive board, said he thinks the closed meeting will provide a setting -- away from the eyes and ears of the media -- where both sides can reach the best solution.

"In the glare of the spotlight ... when people are trying to reach a negotiation, they will speak more freely when they know they are not being quoted word for word and they won't be the front page headlines tomorrow," Lindsey said.

No action on the permit will be taken at Friday's meeting. The state Department of Environmental Quality is expected to issue a report on the proposed protocol in coming months, though the timeline is in question because of the volume of public input received. Joe Hassell, an environmental program manager for the DEQ, said about 500 written comments have been received -- but turnout to a public hearing was even greater.

Last month the masses descended on the small town of Gretna for what was one of the best attended public hearings in the region in years, if ever. Officials estimated more than 2,000 people showed up at Gretna High School on Aug. 7 for the hearing, which had to be moved from the school's auditorium to the football field to accommodate the crowd.

The feel of the August hearing took on a back-and-forth, us-versus-them tone. At that time various leaders called for a moderated meeting among key stakeholders before the permit is forwarded to the State Water Control Board, the ultimate decision-maker in the permitting process.

While the DEQ will be involved in Friday's meeting, it says it is not the host, which precludes it from the open meeting protections of Virginia's Freedom of Information Act.

Friday's guest list includes representatives of some of the local governments affected by Appalachian's Smith Mountain Project, as well as the DEQ and affected citizens, said Bill Hayden, a DEQ spokesman. Representatives from the Tri-County Lake Administrative Commission and Tri-County Relicensing Commission have been invited.

Virginia's Freedom of Information Act requires most meetings involving members of public bodies to be open to the public. The law does not grant access to meetings where two members of a public body that do not constitute a quorum gather, which the DEQ considered when crafting the guest list.

"The participating local governments will not have sufficient representation to constitute a public body. Therefore the meeting is not considered a public meeting," Hayden said.

Collectively any number of two-person groups would not necessarily constitute a public meeting because each two-person body brings its own set of rules, said Alan Gernhardt, staff attorney for the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council.

"Each of those groups may or may not be a public body in its own right," Gernhardt said. "It may be a joint meeting of those bodies."

Hayden said the DEQ is not a public body, but Gernhardt said otherwise.

"DEQ as a state agency is a public body," Gernhardt said.

But because Friday's meeting is not a board meeting or public hearing, it is not required to be open to the public, said Gernhardt, agreeing with Hayden's assessment.

The meeting will be moderated by a representative from the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

As far as public involvement goes, there won't be any until the DEQ summarizes the contents of the comments and releases a written response. It will be available to the public at some point before the request is presented to the State Water Control Board, Hassell said. A date for the Water Control Board to hear the request has not been set.