NEWPORT NEWS -- Millions of dollars and lots of time were poured into a reservoir project on the Peninsula. Now, the project is suddenly stopped, and officials and taxpayers are asking why.

The King William project was stopped by the city after the Army Corps of Engineers suspended a permit for the project.

Newport News officials say the reservoir was supposed to help meet the region's water needs through the middle of the 21st century. 

Opponents say the decision to pull the plug justifies what they've been saying all along, that it was not needed and there's a better way. 

Video: City pulls plug on reservoir project

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The Mattaponi Indians in King William County can put away their signs.  They don't have to worry about Newport News, as they would say, “stealing their river.”

Tom Ellis isn't a member of the tribe.  But, as a resident of Hampton, which gets all of its drinking water from Newport News along with most of the peninsula, Ellis was against the King William Reservoir project.

"I've been paying high water bills to support a project that the area did not need."

The college professor has been speaking out against the project for 12 years, and is a lifelong member of the Sierra Club.

"Existing potential sources of water are more than ample to meet the needs of citizens served by Newport News Waterworks,” said Ellis.

With the Army Corps of Engineers deciding this week to suspend the project's federal permit, city officials decided to follow suit and stop working on it, saying it wouldn't make sense to keep spending money on a project that is unlikely to be built, even if the region could benefit from it in the future.

Opponents, such the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation say it is a victory for the environment.

"The total amount of surface water being used by the residents of the Peninsula who are served by Newport News Waterworks, rather than increasing exponentially as they said it would, is actually declining," said Ellis.

Newport News spent 50 million dollars over the last 22 years trying to pave the way for the reservoir project.