If solutions to this year’s water service problems are going to come through regional collaboration, two of the localities that rely on Richmond’s aging water treatment plant say they need their neighbors to join them at the table.

That was one of the messages that came out of a joint meeting of the Hanover and Henrico boards of supervisors, which spent two hours Wednesday discussing potential paths to work with Richmond and Chesterfield on regional solutions to their shared water challenges.

In the first joint meeting of two localities’ governing bodies that anyone present could recall, the boards expressed their desire to take actions to help improve the city’s water plant and their collective distribution systems to prevent a repeat of the dayslong service outage that left much of the region without water in January.

Members of both boards said they want to work together, through a regional water authority, commission or other approach, to improve service resiliency and help Richmond improve its century-old plant – not, they said, to take it over.

“To our colleagues in the city of Richmond…we’re not trying to big-boy you into making a decision; we are simply saying that we want to be at the table, whatever that looks like,” Henrico Supervisor Tyrone Nelson said. “I want our City Council colleagues to know that we come with a spirit of congeniality and wanting to work together.”

Calling for a regional group that would give the counties more say in how water is provided, Hanover Supervisor Sean Davis added: “Our partners in Richmond need to understand the importance and the legacy of regional bodies.”

“I don’t see it as a conservatorship, I don’t think we need to take over the city’s plant, but I do think that we need to make sure that a food supplier, which the Richmond water treatment plant is…I’m hoping that they would see that as an offer to help, and it’s our greatest desire that our colleagues there in Richmond would accept this help.”

The boards’ comments capped the meeting that was held at the Henrico Sports & Events Center, fittingly right beside the Henrico-Hanover line.

The meeting was called in recent days but had been in the works since the counties received their respective after-action reports on the January outage , which affected service across Richmond but also parts of Henrico and Hanover. The two counties receive some of their water from the city via decades-old contracts.

Henrico’s agreement has an option to exit the contract in 2030, leaving it dependent on the plant for at least another five years. But the supervisors said it is not their desire to break away from the plant, but rather to help improve it through operational, financial or infrastructure assistance.

Noting regional groups that are already established, such as the GRTC board, the airport commission and the Central Virginia Transportation Authority, Nelson said: “Regardless of whatever we as a region create, I’m sure it will be successful.”

The boards heard presentations from the counties’ utilities directors on their respective water systems, current usage and demand, and their arrangements with the city and other water providers. Hanover’s Matt Longshore and Henrico’s Bentley Chan also noted efforts underway to add interconnections and other mutually beneficial infrastructure between the counties to improve capabilities and emergency response.

Supervisors also heard from Chris Pomeroy of local consulting firm AquaLaw, who presented several options allowable under state law in which regional collaboration could be achieved, ranging from mutual aid agreements and water sales contracts to an oversight commission and a regional water authority.

Pomeroy noted examples of similar setups across the state, the most elaborate of which is a 60-inch water line that was installed from Lake Gaston to a reservoir and treatment plant in Norfolk to ultimately provide water to Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach owns the line, Norfolk owns the reservoir and plant, and the water supply helped sustain Virginia Beach through a period of rapid growth, Pomeroy said.

Dan Schmitt, Henrico’s board chairman, referred to that system in advocating for more flexibility in not only where water is sourced in the Richmond region, but how it can be moved across the region during emergencies.

Noting Henrico’s recently completed Cobbs Creek Reservoir in Cumberland County, Schmitt said: “We have 15 billion gallons in a reservoir; that is exciting as it is fundamentally prudent for our regional residents as a system to provide surplus water. What we can’t do is move it.”

Adding that improvements to existing infrastructure are needed, Schmitt continued, “I believe flexibility in our system is critically important, regardless of whether it is a regional collaborative or where we end up. The ability to move the supply of an abundance of water should be part of our goal. Otherwise, we can’t do anything else, and we will always be reliant on our system working or the city system working or the 8 million gallons from” Hanover’s Doswell plant.

Officials said they would reach out to their counterparts in Richmond and Chesterfield on how to make a regional approach a priority. Hanover County Manager John Budesky said the counties have offered technical assistance to the city and want to make sure that the issue is not put on the back burner.

“This is something that needs to be a priority,” Budesky said.

Added Hanover Supervisor Susan Dibble: “It’s obvious to everybody that Hanover County was quite vulnerable in this particular this situation, and we were extremely vulnerable with very little control. That’s something we need to change.”

Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas said a goal is to bring back to the boards by the end of this year specific plans for how to improve resiliency in eastern Henrico and in Hanover, and for what the region can do to improve the city plant. Board members said that goal could be accomplished sooner, so long as all parties are active and willing participants.

“We certainly need to have Richmond’s input on where we’re going as soon as possible,” Henrico Supervisor Misty Roundtree said. “I see this as a good first step.”