Coraggio Consulting
Hanover County Joint Meeting - Hanover County Board of Supervisors and Henrico County Board of Supervisors, Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Place: Hanover County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 57m (video)
Official meeting video (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1434/media
Official agenda (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3846,plainText=false)
Official minutes (CivicClerk): https://hanovercova.api.civicclerk.com/v1/Meetings/GetMeetingFileStream(fileId=3992,plainText=false)

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-24. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:05] Good afternoon, everyone. One, I want to welcome you along with our fellow colleagues in Hanover to this joint meeting. While unorthodox to have our two board meetings, two boards here together, I think it's critically important. And I really appreciate our friends at Hanover for making time.

[00:00:21] And thank you to the county staff, Mr. Manager, for putting this together. We'll call our meetings to order on behalf of Henrico County. We'll call today's meeting to order. And I would like to turn it over to our to my counterpart in Hanover for their chair to call their meeting to order as well.

[00:00:38] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will now call the June 11th Hanover County Board of Supervisors meeting to order. Thank you, sir. As we begin, we'd like to begin with a joint pledge of allegiance and then invocation brought to us by one of our reverends, Reverend Cooper. So if you please stand, if you're able.

[00:00:54] I pledge allegiance to the republic of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, univisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:01:10] We thank you, God, for the blessing of this gift called today, and we thank you for the spirit of communication, collaboration, and commitment to two counties' boards to discuss an issue that is pertinent and important for us as counties as well as a region.

[00:01:32] We ask that you watch over us and that you allow us to conduct this meeting in such a way that it's productive and helps us with the path forward. In your name I do pray, amen. Thank you, Reverend Cooper.

[00:01:49] As we move into the agenda today, I'd just like to take a moment and quickly thank members of the media who have made time to be here today. And for those of you who are watching and streaming online, thank you. I do want to recognize from WTVR, Cameron, Maggie, and Joe, thank you all very much.

[00:02:06] From VPM, Lyndon and Siobhan, thank you. NBC 12 is here, Joelle and Phoenix, thank you both. RIC is here, Sarah and Jacoby, I believe, are here, and Sean Jones from the RTD. If I missed anybody, I apologize, but we do collectively want to say thank you very much for your coverage and for the time you're spending here with us today.

[00:02:26] As a matter of reference for public that are in their room today, this is a joint meeting of the two boards, but it is not a public hearing of any kind, and there won't be public comments taken during today's session. This is an opportunity for both the Henrico County Board of Supervisors and the Hanover County Board of Supervisors to get together and discuss really a collaborative approach and effort to how we deal with and solve the most recent crisis that we've seen with regard to water.

[00:02:52] So it's more of a discussion between boards today. It's an effort, and the intent is to have our boards have an open, honest discussion so that we can collectively move forward and give collective thought and counsel to both County Administrator Badeski and County Manager Votokas and their staff so we can lead a path and forge a path forward with regard to how we deal with the short-term, mid-term, and long-term water issue.

[00:03:16] So again, I just want to make a note to the public, to the members that are here, there will not be public comment time. At this time, before we get into presentations by staff members and the county administrators, I do want to allow our friends in Hanover and my colleagues on the Henrico Board of Supervisors opportunity to make any opening comments.

[00:03:34] And so, Mr. Chair, if any of your colleagues have any opening comments they'd like to make, please, please allow so. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to Henrico County and the Henrico County Board of Supervisors for the opportunity for us to meet here today and to host the Hanover Board and our staff.

[00:03:54] We greatly appreciate your willingness to meet with us. As far as I know, this is the first time that our two boards have met together in this fashion. This is truly a very unique opportunity for neighboring communities to come together and to build upon the great relationships that we have already formed over the years to work for one common goal, and that is to work for our residents.

[00:04:25] We are here today to discuss important items for both of our localities, the water supply issues that we have experienced, discuss any opportunities to enhance regional collaboration, and to discuss long-term goals that may be presented here today that would be mutually beneficial to us.

[00:04:50] I look forward to the presentations and the discussions today. Again, thanks to Henrico County, Henrico Board of Supervisors for hosting this event. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any members of the Henrico County Board, my colleagues, wish to make any opening comments or statements?

[00:05:13] I'll say it. Thank you all, sir. Any comments from Hanover Board members? Seeing none, sir. All right, thank you all very much. And again, thank you for being here. Just so everyone is aware, the order of activity today, we're going to receive some presentations on staff to catch both boards up on the collective efforts that have been had to this point.

[00:05:34] And then there'll be some remarks, I believe, by the county administrators. And then we'll get into discussion, open discussion by the board. So, Mr. Manager, Mr. Badesky, Mr. Administrator, I think you can take it away from here, if that's all right. Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, John and I do have some comments to begin, but I'll be very brief. I just want to once again remind every one of the challenges that we have faced as a region with these water crises from the administrative side.

[00:06:09] We have much work to do for our localities on a daily basis. And these interruptions in service have impacted us, impacted us from getting to that work. And, you know, I have been the county manager for Henrico going on 14 years, but I've been with the county nearly 30 years.

[00:06:32] And I have seen this region do some remarkable things in that time period. And I certainly hope that some of the conversations that we have today lead to more remarkable things. You know, it was not too long ago that Henrico and Hanover and some other localities came together to form the Central Virginia Transportation Authority.

[00:06:53] And that has been a game changer for our roads, our road infrastructure, our connectivity, and what happened in Northern Virginia and Tidewater, we certainly hope, does not happen here. You know, I know many of you elected officials that serve on the Capo Region Airport Commission, and that's another example of commission that oversees the airport, although the airport's in our county, it serves the entire region, and we have representation from Henrico, Hanover, Richmond, and Chesterfield.

[00:07:25] And perhaps another good example is the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority, where the four administrators from the locality serve an entire region, and that authority is fueling revenues for tourism and sports tourism for our region.

[00:07:45] We have a water treatment plan in the city of Richmond that serves the entire region, and I am simply humbled because, Mr. Chairman, I think you began your comments by noting the fact that this has not happened. In the past, I actually asked my predecessor about it, who served more years than I have, and I estimate he recalled a meeting, a joint meeting between two boards.

[00:08:09] He said no, and then he went on to say, and I wouldn't advise it. I don't. But we have had a long and very stable relationship with Hanover. I want to express my personal thanks to your county administrator, who I feel like we have a great working relationship and is someone that I call frequently with questions.

[00:08:35] He is a true gift to our region. So thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to make those comments. Thank you, sir. Thank you, John, for the kind words. It's mutual. It's one of those relationships that goes beyond the work, but it's also important that it also serves our residents.

[00:08:55] And thank you and your team for all the work you put into making today happen. While this setting may be unique for two boards to get together, our staff work very closely together each day. There are days I think I talk to John more than my fiance, and she may prefer it that way.

[00:09:14] But it's important because it's important work. And as of January 6th, I think we talk a little bit more often. But it's important for us to recognize today is the beginning of an even bigger conversation that we will have with our other regional colleagues. I think John talked about those opportunities that we've seen success in.

[00:09:32] And we believe that there's collective success for all of us by working better together. We're starting this meeting with Henrico because this is the border that we share most and the relationship that we leverage almost every day. And throughout the water crisis, we were there for each other.

[00:09:49] We were there for each other's hospital systems, employees, and residents. And that will continue. And we value that relationship that we have across boards. We share some of the frustrations that our residents shared throughout this process. Every time that we're responding to an incident, that's some other work on behalf of our citizens that is not getting focused on at that time.

[00:10:10] And it is an issue that we're committed to assuring the city's success because it's important to our residents to achieve that success. And working with Henrico, we have other opportunities to bolster the resilience of our collective systems.

[00:10:26] And so we'll be talking some about that here today. But really beyond today, some folks asked me this week, was this meeting on the books before the latest issue in the city with the filters? We've been talking about this meeting since January 6th to really get together and continue that partnership that we've had to really focus on the future.

[00:10:46] And there's a lot of opportunity, not only for our collective jurisdictions, but for this region. And so, Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, thank you for your willingness to come together as boards. Your staff has prepared presentations today that I think will set up this conversation.

[00:11:01] But there should be ample time for our boards to express their perspectives on behalf of their residents. But really look forward, look fully to what what is next, because that's where we're really going to see the difference. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Badesky. I think folks in the audience, folks that are dialed in, I think you just heard from our two chief administrators, the importance.

[00:11:23] I think you heard from the Hanover County chair, the importance of this meeting and our shared goal. And I think our goal here today is clear, and that is to have collective, collaborative discussion about what it is that our jurisdictions, our residents both need so that independent conversations among jurisdictions is not what is occurring and that it's collective conversations among jurisdictions so that we're all speaking on behalf of each other and moving forward in a way that benefits our region as a whole.

[00:11:49] So thank you all both for your comments. Mr. Chair, thank you. Mr. Manager, Mr. Administrator, I think we're prepared for staff presentations. We are. We are, Mr. Chair. Mr. Badeski, we've got our DPU directors that are going to make this first presentation. I'll introduce Bentley Chan, Director of Public Utilities. It would do the same for him. Yes, sir. I'd like to, and I believe we're kicking off with our Director of Public Utilities, Matt Longshore. Matt, thank you very much. All right. Thank you all. Good afternoon,

[00:12:24] everyone. Again, I'm Matt Longshore, Director of Public Utilities for Hanover County. I'm happy to present today alongside my colleague from Henrico County, Bentley Chan, on some regional collaboration activities going on today. So, wait one second. So the way we have this presentation structured today is I'm going to go over a brief background and history of the Hanover County public water system, and then I'm going to go over some highlights of the water contract we have with the city of Richmond, then get into the way our current system works and current and future water

[00:13:03] demands of the system. So I'll turn it over then to Mr. Chan with Henrico County, and then he'll go over similar information for Henrico. Then we'll both go over some water resilience studies we have going on, as well as facilities planning, projects, and regional cooperation activities. And I

[00:13:25] apologize, got to get this to work in. Thank you, sir. So to start out with a quick background in history of the Hanover County public water system, back in the early 90s and prior to 1994, Hanover's public water system consisted of many individual well systems that were all interlinked together, as well as a water treatment plant within the Dosswell area.

[00:13:58] So the urban system, again, back in the early 90s, consisted of 25 interconnected wells with a rated combined capacity of 2.7 mgd. There was also an interconnection for 250,000 gallons per day within Rico County along the Route 1 corridor.

[00:14:16] Hanover County also had a multitude of rural water systems throughout the county that was comprised of 25 additional wells. There was an interconnection with Henrico County along the Route 33 corridor that was established back in the mid-70s, primarily to serve a chicken processing facility.

[00:14:35] And again, there was a Doswell system where we had a 3.5 million gallon per day water treatment plant.

[00:14:50] So again, back in the early 90s, Hanover County recognized that it was quickly approaching a water supply issue and commissioned a report by the Richmond Metro Chamber of Commerce. In that report, the projections back then, as you can see from the graphics on your screen, anticipated Hanover County's demand for water would exceed the water supply by the late 1990s, early 2000s.

[00:15:16] Another interesting map that came out of that report is what the Hanover County water system looked like back then. And what you can see from the dark shaded areas on the screen were the multitude of rural water systems throughout the county. On the north side of the county, the larger dark shaded area is the Dyswell service area.

[00:15:35] And then the lighter shaded area on the southern part of the county was what was called back then the urban service area. And it also shows the Route 33 and Route 1 interconnections with Henrico County. And so with this study, the county looked at several different options to get more water supply, knowing it was going to have a water supply issue by the end of the 1990s.

[00:16:01] Looked at several different options. It was decided that it's one of the more cost feasible and time feasible options to really secure a larger water supply for the county to meet its needs was to enter into a water contract with the city of Richmond that was entered into in 1994.

[00:16:20] Some highlights of that contract were that it secured a 20 million gallon per day capacity enrichment water treatment plant, as well as the distribution system. In return, the county pays the city for wholesale water service and also participates in the city's capital improvement plan for infrastructure that directly impacts the county's water service needs.

[00:16:41] This agreement is currently in effect until June of 2035 and will continue thereafter in force unless terminated by the county administrator or the city manager with proper notice. The current water contract Hanover County has with Henrico County was originally entered into again in 1974 and it's been amended three times since.

[00:17:08] The highlights of that contract is it provides the county a water source of 775,000 gallons per day from Henrico's water treatment facility and distribution system. In return, Hanover pays capacity and commodity charges monthly and provides a 10-year water projection each April.

[00:17:26] This agreement was in effect until 2014, but again continues in force thereafter unless terminated by the county manager of Henrico or the county administrator of Hanover. And so with those service contracts in place since the mid-90s, this is what Hanover County's current public system, current public water system looks like.

[00:17:49] And what you can see from the larger blue lines on the map, that's the main transmission infrastructure through the county in the suburban service area. The differentiated areas are the different pressure zones within Hanover County. And you can see highlighted in red are the different supplies that supplies the water system.

[00:18:08] So on the north side of the county, again, we have the Doswell Water Treatment Plant that's now rated for 4 million gallons per day. On the southern side of the county, we have the Henrico County supply and then the Richmond supply for 20 million gallons a day. The current demands for the Hanover County water system on an average day in 2024, we were just at 8.8 million gallons.

[00:18:31] On a max day in 2024, we were at 14.4 million gallons. For the future demands for the county, what our projections are showing from the most recent utility master plan is that in 2048, we'll see an average day of 16.3 million gallons and a max day of 25.6 million gallons.

[00:18:51] And so why does 2048 timeframe is important is that's around the time our projections are showing that future demands could start exceeding the current supply. And so from the graph, you'll see the total monthly water production for the past few fiscal years, the blue bars representing the water, the total water production for Hanover County with the red triangles representing how much of that water was actually purchased from the city of Richmond.

[00:19:22] So at this point, I'm happy to turn it over to Mr. Chan from Henrico County. Thank you, Matt. And good afternoon. So some background and history on Henrico County's system prior to 2004.

[00:19:43] Henrico purchased all of its water from the city of Richmond and utilized several high-capacity drinking water wells in the eastern part of the county. In 2004, Henrico opened its initially 55 MGD water treatment facility at Three Chop and Gaskins Road and later upgraded it to 80 MGD.

[00:20:05] And so we produce and distribute drinking water to the western and portions of the central Henrico. Portions of central and eastern Henrico remain on Richmond water. We distribute this water through 1,600 miles of water distribution mains and with the assistance of 26 facilities across the county.

[00:20:26] So Richmond's contract, Henrico's contract with Richmond was entered into in September of 1994. And with that agreement, in exchange for signing that contract, Henrico was provided with 80 million gallons per day of raw water allocation out of the James River and support for the construction of our own drinking water facility.

[00:20:58] In this contract, we have an allocation of 35 million gallons per day of drinking water from Richmond's water plant. And from 2007 on to the end of this contract, the county has a minimum purchase of 12 million gallons per day, which we pay for no matter how much we take.

[00:21:24] Unlike Hanover County's contract, we don't have any additional CIP. We only pay for ongoing maintenance and upgrades because we are locked into the 35 MGD. There is no additional capacity that Henrico can purchase unless agreed upon by both the county and the city.

[00:21:49] The county may resell water to other customers located outside of the county, but with written approval from the city. And previously, we had done this by shuttling that water to other localities, Hanover and Goochland.

[00:22:05] But now both Hanover and Goochland are served by Henrico water. The city is required to provide us with a yearly cost allocation study that explains the actual cost of service.

[00:22:22] And we are required to pay real and personal property taxes. We are also required to provide the city with projected water requirements each May 1st.

[00:22:39] And this agreement with the city is in effect until July 1, 2040. But unlike Hanover's contract, we can terminate it with five years written notice instead of 10. Just a map of the county's water system.

[00:23:03] This shows the 1,600 miles of water distribution, the 26 facilities, the water facilities, which include water pump stations, tanks, and pressure sustaining valves, pressure sustaining or reducing valves. And we also have eight pressure zones. Now, the current water system between Henrico and Richmond has 30 water meters and plus seven emergency meters,

[00:23:40] But we primarily take water from the city at three primary locations, as shown on this map, at Three-Chop, Laburnum, and SHRM, which provide us with the ability to take 20 million gallons per day of water from the city.

[00:23:56] During this previous and the last water event at the city, we had to close, manually close, 14 of these 30 meters to isolate Henrico from the city.

[00:24:13] Moving on to the borders of Hanraiko, Hanover, and Goochland. Between Hanover and Hanraiko, as Matt previously said, there is 775,000 gallons per day available at Route 33 and Route 1, although Route 1 is normally closed and there's no water going through there.

[00:24:45] but it was opened during these last water events to bring more water into Hanover. That is the max, 775,000 gallons per day is the max as per the contract.

[00:25:02] And should there be more, should there be a need for more, we would look at that contract again and revise it. On the Goochland side, they actually have paid, they have 25 million gallons per day of allocation, of which they're only using five right now at four locations as shown on this map.

[00:25:26] The Henrico County Water Treatment Facility, our drinking water production plant at the intersection of Three Chop and Gaskins Road. This is our 80 million gallon per day plant.

[00:25:42] We do have the ability to upgrade equipment and expand this facility to produce 130 million gallons per day. Current production and demands for the county, this is just an explanation of where we are as of 2021 and where we think we'll be in 2025.

[00:26:05] I will point out, like Matt did, that, again, the 130 million gallons is the max day production on our current site, and we would be looking for additional sources in the lead up to 2055.

[00:26:24] Cobbs Creek Reservoir. So we are happy to report that Cobbs Creek Reservoir has reached substantial completion and this fall will reach final completion. And this reservoir is the county's 15 billion gallon storage reservoir across 1,100 acres in Cumberland.

[00:26:49] And with this project, Henrico has been allocated an additional 30 million gallons of raw water intake from the James River, plus an additional 17, so 47 altogether, 47 million gallons of water from the James River that we can produce into drinking water.

[00:27:13] One of the things that came out of the January 6th water crisis with the city was the need to, well, what we saw was that we were infrastructure limited in the middle part of the county, and so there was a bottleneck.

[00:27:29] And so we have stood up a project, the West-East Water Network, that will construct 70,000 linear feet, approximately 13.2 miles of water transmission mains across the county, building out that network, in addition to building more storage that will move over 20 million gallons of water from west to east to eventually serve the county's eastern needs.

[00:27:56] We are currently working on our facilities planning study in conjunction with the Department of Planning's 2045 Comprehensive Land Use Plan. We are looking at population growth and the needed water facilities to satisfy that population growth.

[00:28:18] We are identifying the capital projects to meet not only those demands, but also for redundancy and resiliency, which we've seen it's very needed. coming out of this beach water crises. And so, in addition to that, it is water supply, storage, and treatment requirements and cost estimates. So, we should have all of that information together to present to our respective boards in conjunction with Hanover's plan

[00:28:55] in the near future. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Director Longshore. Thank you, Bentley. So for Hanover County, we have commissioned a water resilient study with the project team comprised of Dewberry Engineers and Arcadis. The scope of this study currently includes the evaluation of a future treatment plant along the Pamunkey River, as well as a reservoir. This solution has been studied several times throughout the years,

[00:29:32] but with this study, we particularly want to look into phasing options and siting options for the water treatment plant, as well as the intake infrastructure in the reservoir. We're also going to be evaluating the safe yield levels of the Homunkey River and coordinating that with DEQ to get their input on it. We're going to look into the anticipated time phrase for permitting engineering and construction of the treatment plant and reservoir. Additionally, with this study, We're going to be evaluating the available capacity within RICO County and looking for ways to collaborate with in RICO County.

[00:30:11] We're going to evaluate different options for interconnections and coordinate with RICO County to identify mutually beneficial infrastructure for the region. We're going to evaluate the needed transmission infrastructure in Hanover County that goes along with any interconnections or an additional water treatment plant.

[00:30:32] We're also going to look at the high-level cost estimates for all of these water supply options and all the infrastructure required to be able to move the water throughout the system. So that's what will be coming from this study. We'll also provide a report to the boards, to the public on the water supply options to estimate the cost and the recommendations from that study.

[00:30:55] So with that, we'll be happy to take any questions at this point. Matt Bentley, thank you for the data. I just want to quickly say it's not lost on me. I'm sure it's not lost on our colleagues that this information, while part of it, I'm sure, was known to the Hanover folks and part of it, I'm sure, was known to us.

[00:31:16] This is exactly the kind of conversations I think that we together need to be having as we plan collectively. I have been taking some notes, I'm sure my colleagues and you all have, on how we put this together. So, Matt, Bentley, thank you. Mr. Chair, if there are any questions from members of your delegation, now would be a good time before we let the DPU folks sit down, and I'll do the same over here, if that's all right.

[00:31:41] Yes, sir. Any questions from Hanover board members? Seeing none, sir. Any questions from my colleagues on the DPU presentation, Ms. Rountree? I'm sorry. Bentley, on the water production demands slide for Henrico, future demands and future production, the future production is inclusive of Cobb's Creek?

[00:32:12] Yes, ma'am, it is. The 130 is what we were able to move to. The 80 to 130 is what we're able to move to with the addition of Cobb's Creek. And does that assume that we're sharing that water, or is that? So it does not assume the additional 17 that Hemrico holds that can be allocated to ourselves or to any partners that we take on. So it's 30 plus 17. 47 altogether is what the permit

[00:32:49] from the Department of Environmental Quality provided us. 30 was for Henrico. 17 was for Henrico's partners. And since Henrico doesn't currently have any partners, that 17 rolls back to us, which we can actualize into another, possibly another straw in the James River.

[00:33:14] Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Nelson? Yep. How did, Mr. Manager, I see Hanover, 1994, and maybe Mr. Podetsky or somebody can answer this, Hanover ended into contract with the city.

[00:33:38] When and when did we, and why are there different ending dates on our contract? I guess, does anybody know that? John, I'll let you speak again. I may need to defer to some staff on, to a certain extent, but certainly the needs and issues that we were both facing in 94 were different, and the timing was different.

[00:34:03] So at that time, we were not at the table together going joint negotiations. But Matt, I'd ask if anything else that you're aware of? Nothing that I'm aware of. Obviously, I wasn't there back then.

[00:34:18] But what I can say, typically with those types of negotiations, you try to identify your long-term needs, and depending on the position your locality's in, if Henrico was planting its own water source so far out, that may have been factored into negotiations.

[00:34:36] Depending on where Hanover County was with its capital planting back then, that would have factored in. So those are typical things you would factor in to those type of negotiations, and that may have played into the terms of the contract. but nonetheless, both of them are long-term contracts.

[00:34:51] Now, we'll tell you, Mr. Nelson, you recall we opened our water treatment plant. It was after 2004, but prior to that, it was at least two years of conversations that the city of Richmond and Henrico County were involved in before coming forward with ultimately the agreement that's in place through 2040.

[00:35:16] So, our contract ends in 2040, Hanover ends in 2035. So, I would assume we do have to make some decisions about what we're going to do sooner rather than later, meaning both localities, I would assume. And the second thing is, I see an extension for us. There's a possibility of us going from west to east. Is there, I'm assuming that Hanover still has to depend on another locality to get their water.

[00:35:55] So, Bentley, if you would pull up that slide and just show Mr. Nelson where the Hanover Connection would be and what we're looking at as far as potential resiliency. So it's a little difficult to see details, but all of these lines do cross the central part of the county and cross over Chamberlain Road.

[00:36:23] Chamberlain Road is where the city has a 30-inch water main that serves Hanover. And so it is our plan to build an interconnect or several interconnects that will allow for the distribution of Hemrico water into Hanover, should there be an emergency situation.

[00:36:46] Okay. All right. I got another question, but I'll wait. Thank you, sir. Any other questions to my right? I have a few. I'll start with number four, which leads off of Mr. Nelson's. My question was, was the assumption that this potential main line that is constructed cross-county to move water, if I'm correct, Bandley, currently we have the ability to move water from the west to the east in a capacity of one million gallons a day?

[00:37:16] Yes, sir. It is 1.5 million gallons. And this would be built to what? So this will be built to 21 million gallons. All right. And to Mr. Nelson's question, exactly the question I had, at Chamberlain, you're saying is where a potential tie-in to head north would occur. And what is the capacity of that 30-inch line going north per day?

[00:37:41] That is 20. It's 20 million gallons per day going north. And that's max. And if I understand my notes correctly, Hanover's current use per day is 14 and a half, I'm sorry, eight and a half with a max of 14 and a half, and potentially in 2048, 16.3 to 25.6.

[00:38:05] So the understanding would be pretty darn close above the normal use and pretty darn close to the max use. Yes, sir. Okay. And I will say that it is not one line. It will be, there's three routes that we have right now, and it will be either or, or separate.

[00:38:26] That's not the only route, is what you're saying? Yes. It just happens to be the most central and the largest? Yes. Okay. All right. Clarification on that West East Network. Approximate cost, approximate timeline, and a capacity you answered, which was 20? 21. 21.

[00:38:41] Approximate cost? $350 million. An approximate timeline, I promise, Bentley, we'll hold you to it today. So five to seven years, but we hope to bring online pieces of it way before that time.

[00:38:58] All right. On this cross-county pipeline to Chamberlain that could potentially go north to feed into Hanover, can it go south to feed back into Richmond in reverse? Currently, the water's going all the way. Does the network exist to a point where the city can be served from this line as well if water flowed the other way?

[00:39:18] So not entirely, but we do have a plan for that as well. So there are discussions and planning ongoing for Henrico to have the ability to at least serve the northern part of the city, should it be necessary.

[00:39:35] Part of a redundancy discussion, I'm sure. Yes, sir. All right. I'm almost there, I promise. To recap demand, the average in 2048, we did that. I got that. Recap allowances. Can you recap allowances? Right now, we have the ability to pull out 80 million gallons a day from the James River.

[00:39:52] Is that correct? Addition of 30 for cobs, 17. Essentially correct. So, when we built the drinking water plant, we actually sized that intake for the maximum, which is about 130, 134 million gallons per day.

[00:40:13] And actualized drinking water coming out of the plant will be about 130 because you have some loss across the facility. And our allowances are there now. 80 million gallons a day to start, 30 and 17. Cobb's Creek is 127. Allowing is there and the plant capacity can go to 130. Yes. All right. And Cobb's Creek holds 15 billion gallons. Yes, sir. All right. That actually covered them all. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any questions to my right for utilities, Mr. Chair? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[00:40:51] Mr. Davis, I believe you have questions or comments, sir? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to provide a little bit of additional information on the 1994 agreement from Hanover. So a large portion of those talks were focused around the pickup point there in Chamberlain, of course, working with our regional partners on that. So that was a huge, huge discussion that went between Henrico, Richmond, and Hanover. When it came to the actual agreement and the take read, we were severed in that. Henrico cut their own agreement, Hanover cut their agreement, And it was needs based on the individual locality.

[00:41:29] So it wasn't a joint contract negotiations. It was based on the long-term needs projections of Hanover. So while there was some collaboration on the pickup point and location from the real estate side there at Chamberlain, our take rate and our needs and our long-term planning in Hanover was different, not unlike any other contract negotiations with a supplier.

[00:41:52] Different customers have different contracts with suppliers. So just a little context on that. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Any other comments or questions, Mr. Hudson? Bentley, Matt, thank you for this. In the event, we hope that it will never happen again, but that's why we want to be prepared.

[00:42:14] Would we be able to switch over seamlessly or would there be a time of, I guess it's going to depend on how quickly we can isolate ourselves again and then do we know that? Yeah, absolutely, Mr. Hudson. In the event of another water outage situation, depending on how the infrastructure is tied together, there are things you can put into place, different types of valves that can automatically cut over.

[00:42:40] All that's done with the engineering of the project, and I'm not sure Henrico is at the point where you're looking at that yet. We'll certainly look into those kind of options, what type of automation could be put on a back feed, things like that. Those that come later on during the engineering of the project, if it has to all be done manually.

[00:43:00] That's where it really relies on communication between the localities, making sure we can get out in front of downstream impacts and that type of situation, making sure our operational personnel can coordinate open valves and float waters as quick as we can. Y'all are the engineers. I'm going to ask you to dumb it down for me.

[00:43:17] So when I'm asked at breakfast or whatever, the technology does exist, say, for it to sense a reduction in water pressure, let's say, from the city. And this system, the new system, the emergency system would kick in. It does exist.

[00:43:35] That type of technology is available today. We'll certainly look into that. You got it. Sure. Thank you both. Thank you, sir. Mr. Stoneman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This question for Matt. For your long-range projections, are you factoring in, obviously, Hanover is seeing a surge in a data center and that type of use.

[00:43:56] Are you factoring that into the forecast? So for the long-range projections for this presentation, those came from the 2019 Facilities Master Plan for Hanover County. Those projections were based on the comprehensive plan that was in place in 2019.

[00:44:15] So for utility master planning purposes, we always want to make sure we're supporting the comprehensive plan and a different type of growth that's going on in the county. We're currently working on a master plan update. As part of that updating process, we'll be looking at different types of development that may not have been around in 2019 when that update was done.

[00:44:35] So we'll be taking that into account. We'll be looking at any comprehensive plan updates and making sure we can support different types of development coming into the county as it's laid out in the comprehensive plan. Yes, sir. Any other questions or comments from Hanover board members?

[00:44:56] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir. Just one more that came up as Mr. Hudson was speaking. Family, this is a question for you and for clarification, I think, for our Hanover partners. I want to be clear about one piece of use. Enrico's current demand is about 35 million gallons per day.

[00:45:13] I want to make sure everyone's aware that right now that demand is split east-west, and it's not the same. I can talk about our west-use current and our east-use current, and I think the point I'm going to is some of the future projections at 105 plan for a lot more need in the east.

[00:45:30] So I want to be clear about the split and the need to move water currently. What's the current west use? So the current west use is around 8 to 10 million gallons per day. In the east? Yes, sir. In the east, 8 to 10. So the current west is 25 to 27 per day.

[00:45:47] Correct. And then I'm guessing, Bentley, that the future projection of 105, that equalizes a bit because of development potential, I would imagine? Yes, sir. And we are also looking at conservation, and that has driven a lot of the numbers down from where the projections were.

[00:46:07] So a lot of this may look a lot better as we get closer to those dates. And we have storage tanks currently in the east, which help us mitigate some potential issues, but they're not saw balls, correct? That's correct. We have about like almost 10 million gallons of storage in the east, enough to satisfy a day's worth of use and also gives us the ability to stretch that out should we be very judicious about using it.

[00:46:36] Excellent. I just want to be clear, Mr. Manager, Mr. Commissioner, fellow colleagues, the reason I ask that question is as we plan for this cross county and we talk capacities, I want to talk capacities in 30 years, not capacities today. And our East's capacity in 30 years, I think Mr. Nelson would agree, is going to be different than it is today.

[00:46:57] I don't know, Mr. Chappell. I want to be sure that we're all right. I'm letting you talk, but don't get too far. Yes, sir. We don't know what the capacity in the East is going to look like. Yes, sir. So I don't want anybody listening to this online to say, this is what I thought.

[00:47:14] They better get ready to build the East up. That's not what it is. Mr. Chappell, he said that. I did not say that. So, understood. Thank you, sir. Is he moving east? Is he moving east? Any other questions? I'm sorry. Any other questions from either member of the board?

[00:47:30] Yes, ma'am. And this is maybe just a more foundational question. Are there other presentations that are a part of this meeting? Yes, ma'am. I think Mr. Pomeroy would be next with regard to some of the collaboration opportunities. Okay. Thank you. Because this felt very informational thus far, and I'm just trying to figure out.

[00:47:49] Yeah, that's next. Thank you. Mr. Chair, one further clarification. Mr. Chan, you mentioned our county to the west of us. They're pooling about 4 million gallons a day from us. Is that correct? So about 5.

[00:48:04] And you said something about 25. Is that they can pool that much? They can. The infrastructure is not there yet, or the development is not there yet for it. And is that projection, that 25, in your capacity planning number for long-term planning?

[00:48:26] It is. Yes, sir. It's already been marked. And last question on that. Is there a contract on that? Yes, sir. There is a contract on that. And is there any other county that we have a contract with? No, not at this time. Okay.

[00:48:41] Thank you. Mr. Chan, I want to clarify one thing. my question was regarding this in my mind. Water delivered to Hanover through this potential system, this west-east system, Hanover water would be considered east. It has to transmit east before it can go north. Yes, sir. And at that junction, is it reasonable to assume that the 20 million can go north and 20 million can go east from that junction point? So it would not be duplicative.

[00:49:14] it would be either or, or split or somehow. All right. So to be clear, and Mr. Nelson, my apologies. That's why I asked that question. Because I think, as I said, now I know that water moving north would have to go east first and would have to be considered in the capacity movement from west to east. Is that correct?

[00:49:36] Yes, sir. Thank you. Yeah. I'll say more before this is over with, but thank you for that clarity. Yes, sir. Because you would get ready to send me up for the fire. Yes, sir. Got you. Glad to publicly clarify. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Badeski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just wanted to follow up to Mr. Nelson's earlier question as far as if we're already reliant on 20 million gallons, are we going to be able to alone solve that dilemma just with this partnership?

[00:50:06] And the quick answer is likely no. And so we're going to have to look at multiple ways to address that issue for Hanover. And that's part of the overall work Matt had mentioned that we're working on. The other piece that hadn't been mentioned was time frame.

[00:50:22] And so this is both myself and the manager made this a priority for our staff to be addressing. We're looking to go into the upcoming budget cycle as soon as October to have some of these recommendations outlined and able to be executionable.

[00:50:39] And with our team, really looking at our capacity opportunities between Hanover and Henrico as soon as the first of the new calendar year. So this is work that we're moving expeditiously. We'll come back to both boards and recommendations for implementation.

[00:50:57] So this work has begun and will move fairly quickly to be able to have long-term solutions in place. To also answer your question, Mr. Nelson, as we look at long-term agreements, the sooner we get those issues addressed and reviewed, the more we'll be able to make those longer-term proceedings.

[00:51:16] Thank you for your comments, Mr. Badesky. Any other comments from Hanover board members? Seeing none, Mr. Chairman, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Manager, Mr. Badesky, I believe we're prepared to move on. We are. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to ask Chris Pomeroy from Aquila to come forward.

[00:51:35] And he has a presentation on some recent challenges and opportunities for regional collaboration that he will cover. So, Chris, and for those of you that don't know Chris, Chris has worked with Henrico for many, many years.

[00:51:51] He did the post-January 6th report for us and has been a longtime member of AMWA. I know your utility folks are well aware of who Chris Pomeroy is. So, Chris? Mr. Manager, thank you.

[00:52:08] Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Mr. Administrator, good afternoon. Thanks for the privilege for being with you for this remarkable joint meeting. As the manager said, I was asked to speak to potential mechanisms for collaboration against the backdrop of the challenges that have been faced.

[00:52:27] And I can't help but begin by remarking that it's been an extraordinary set of challenges. I really can't think across the Commonwealth of a suite of events that the region has experienced and tackled together so far in 2025 to occur on a large-scale public water system such as this.

[00:52:48] It's been quite a challenge. The utility presentations thus far refer to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality a few times as to a development of water supply systems, particularly for accessing water resources.

[00:53:06] the other state agency of critical jurisdiction here for all things that we do together now and look to do together in the future is the Virginia Department of Health. So just for a little framing as we head into opportunities or mechanisms or options for collaboration, I can just think back over the four items and kind of summarize briefly with where we are as a region with that type of state oversight, because as much as you've challenged the immediate, tackled the immediate challenge of serving your customers and managing your way through the tough times, those regulatory

[00:53:42] aspects are still playing out underneath all this. So with respect to the big crisis in January, it was widely reported that the health department contracted with a third-party engineer to produce an engineering report. That report is under review and decisions about what to do with it, and it's recommended $64 million in repairs plus operational improvements is underway.

[00:54:08] The health department's issued two notices of alleged violation that are outstanding, and the typical fashion there is that that would be resolved through a health department enforcement action, typically by agreement of the owner and the state in the form of a consent order.

[00:54:27] So we've not yet reached that stage, but that would be anticipated. Then we get into the spring and we have a few events in rapid succession. Of course, you're well familiar with the fluoride event in April with the fluoride tank problems and the release of additional material into the system unintentionally.

[00:54:46] That led to the health department putting out another notice of alleged violation relative to the regional water plant and the possibility of further health department enforcement action to resolve that notice of violation that they've issued.

[00:55:03] And then, of course, the events of late May, early June, really coupled across the same week or so. The boil water advisory, after the treatment problem that took large swaths of the city, not either the counties, but of the city, back into a boil water advisory mode, was quite a challenge with that operational issue.

[00:55:28] Being an operational issue, that's something that I would speculate, again, that the health department has an obligation to look closely at in terms of performance at the facility. And then with the waterline water valve problem downtown on Canal Street that led to the well-coordinated but still emergency repairs to the first couple days of June, leading Henrico to activate an emergency response and water distribution exercise to try to stay ahead of any critical problems, which fortunately was successful.

[00:56:03] Again, you can see here sort of a suite of tough problems. I'd like to think as a region we've come through most of that, but pretty hard times. It certainly exposed the vulnerabilities that are not lost on anybody in this room. So against that backdrop, I was asked to bring some general information on why do regions collaborate on water systems and water utility assets in particular.

[00:56:30] Other examples of regional collaboration came up in the opening remarks of today's meeting. But in the context of water systems in particular, I think of the big three reasons that local governments as owners of large-scale water infrastructure often cooperate in their some combination typically of financial reasons, infrastructure reasons, or different operational benefits.

[00:56:56] Typically in the financial category, we think about large-scale infrastructure. Generally, we find economies of scale and infrastructure development, whether that's anything ranging from reservoir development to water treatment plant development toward major pipelines like the west to east conveyance project that's been mentioned several times in today's meeting.

[00:57:19] And then from a more operational standpoint, just the efficiencies that are often found across managerial functions, plant operations, long-term planning, even purchasing on commodities like chemicals and power.

[00:57:38] So those things are the typical considerations in the financial bucket of considerations. collaboration. As to the infrastructure itself, I thought the utility directors brought out a lot of this in their presentations already. Source water access, source water development, whether that's free-flowing river intakes or side stream storage to maximize quantity, those are critical projects. But so the system development aspect, but also the contingency planning, the what-ifs,

[00:58:12] the redundancy, the resiliency. It is, after all, these are physical assets and occasionally something can break. So the reliability aspect is another reason in the infrastructure bucket that communities often choose to collaborate. And lastly, that operational bucket, there I think of things and I see utility owners and their staffs discussing aspects like managerial resources, technical resources, operational resources, and just taking advantage of having

[00:58:44] a big, strong pool of talent to take full advantage of just maximum competency on critical services. So those are probably three of the main categorical drivers for collaboration and concept.

[00:59:02] Well, how do people do that in practice? How do localities do that in practice? And I'll just share with you a few thoughts on what I've seen in my experience working with different large-scale water utilities across Virginia and elsewhere, for that matter. And these really run a spectrum, and they run a spectrum, and they're often really customized based on the needs of different communities as they're evaluated by their elected leaders.

[00:59:28] So ranging from the lighter end to the, in terms of collaboration on a temporary basis to longer term, larger collaboration, some of the examples that are out there elsewhere are these. Basic mutual aid, whether that's done informally or through established networks with contractual mechanisms, basically the ability to come to the aid of one another in a moment of need.

[00:59:57] There's been some excellent examples of that here in our own region, compliments to all of you and your staffs, and getting that done to best serve the public through some of these crises that I had mentioned in my opening. A next step up from that would be the types of mechanisms that are addressed or can be addressed through water sales contracts.

[01:00:23] These can range from really simple in terms of just a fixed quantity for a fixed period of time to more elaborate arrangements that are really about some complex asset sharing to either increase reliability or keep overall costs for the public for the same service down.

[01:00:42] I got one client that's built a pipeline for redundancy between two communities that, thankfully, in the 20 years since we put that line in place, has never had to be actually used, but is there to take care of a critical vulnerability between a couple communities, and they know it's there if they need it.

[01:01:01] And that'd be one example. To more elaborate systems, like in Virginia, the best known, I'll say, elaborate system of sharing is Lake Gaston on the state line with a 60-inch diameter pipeline that runs all the way to Norfolk's reservoirs, where the pipeline's owned by Virginia Beach, the terminal reservoir and the treatment plant that treats the water is owned by the city of Norfolk, and then the finished water is conveyed to the beach.

[01:01:31] So a partnership there that took advantage of some existing assets, but met a growing need for Virginia Beach when its population was really booming. So that's kind of all that done through contractual mechanisms.

[01:01:48] There's been a lot of discussion about how through collaboration can we all do better by putting more eyes on difficult problems. And one example for me that comes to mind are oversight commission mechanisms.

[01:02:03] You find various examples of this out there where parties by agreement can create frameworks for smart shared decision making, such as some through some type of committee process. There's what I would consider a very light version of that now related to basic capital plan reviews relative to the regional water plant in the city.

[01:02:27] But probably a more comprehensive version of that we can find by looking down in the large wastewater utility in Hopewell, where with the major customers, there's a commission where the major customers sit with the city representatives and a nine-member commission.

[01:02:44] And there's a framework that establishes that the commission exercises shared decision-making on capital projects for operation, well, operations, maintenance, improvement, and repairs of the regional wastewater facility, which is a 50 million gallon per day facility.

[01:03:03] So it kind of puts it on the scale of things that we're talking about in the room today. And that commission basically decides, I'll say, most of those key decisions on these complex assets, while the plant continues to be owned by the city, the commission works together to decide those issues, except in the rare case where city council has an override authority in an unusual situation.

[01:03:30] And then lastly, I'll touch on regional water authorities, which have been done in various ways over the past 50, 60 years in Virginia under the Water and Waste Authorities Act. It's used very heavily in northern Virginia and a little bit in some larger communities elsewhere.

[01:03:52] I shouldn't say a little bit, fairly widely, but dotted across the Commonwealth, where we have a range of options there as well. And those in the exercise of regional authorities can range from what I'll call for shorthand full retail, which is what Roanoke City and Roanoke County did about 20 years ago when they combined all their assets under a common board management and executive management utility staff to serve the region.

[01:04:23] And then that's spread over time as a different surrounding cities and counties have joined in. That's kind of the full retail model. There's a wholesale only water authority model that's out there and familiar in Virginia.

[01:04:39] We don't need to go any further than down to Petersburg to look at the Appomattox River Water Authority, where we have the reservoir at Lake Chesden and the regional water plant serving five localities, Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, Petersburg, Dinwiddie, and Prince George, all partners in that facility and comprising their board. Lastly, as I work my way down the list, what I would call authority lights. I have a longtime client on the Tidewater area where one of two partners

[01:05:15] in the successful authority of the city of Suffolk owned and continues to own the water treatment plant, but they have a system that they developed through an authority and a 40-year contract that provides for the development of surface and groundwater resources, expansion of water treatment plants to meet the needs of both communities, and then a cost-sharing mechanism through that, all managed under the authority rubric. So I probably just laid out eight or nine different versions on how collaboration can be done. The point is there is a lot of flexibility.

[01:05:50] We have a lot of tools and options under Virginia law on how interested parties can go about doing that together based on best meeting the needs that you find in our, you know, in our given communities. So I hope that a little tour through the options can be helpful for setting up the important conversations that I gather you wish to have together.

[01:06:13] Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, of course, happy to answer any questions and remain with you through the meeting if I can be helpful. Thank you, Mr. Pomeroy. Any questions? Mr. Chairman, any questions from the anniversary? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Pomeroy.

[01:06:30] I had a question about your presentation, B number three, the May incident, the boil water advisory. Fortunately, that advisory did not affect the entire region.

[01:06:46] Can you explain why that is? Are there separate circuits, separate pumps? What is the reason for an advisory in one area but not in another? Yeah, Mr. Chairman, if I may, I might ask Mr. Chan to help me with that in the sense that it's principally a technical question.

[01:07:05] The area that I feel competent to respond to is that when we don't trip the criteria that triggers a boil water advisory under the health department regulations, a given portion of the system simply does not need to resort to that same management practice. There's some technical separation in the way the situation was managed that Mr.

[01:07:24] Chan could speak to better than me, but that's the policy reason, if you care for that. So the way that we understand it through the VDH regulations is that there are separate pressure zones within the city, separate pressure zones in Hamraiko and Hanover.

[01:07:48] And if you can isolate a pressure zone and keep it above 20 PSI, that's the threshold. once you drop below 20 PSI, then you need to do a boil water advisory. And so in all the efforts from Hanover and Henrico, both localities never lost pressure, never went below 20 PSI, but there were areas of the city that did. And so hopefully I'm going to preempt a question here.

[01:08:19] So there are thoughts of, okay, well, somebody is in a boil water advisory and that water is going to another locality. And so the principal thing in a, or the principal fear in a boil water advisory is the empty pipe, not the water that's going into the pipe.

[01:08:37] So the empty pipe exposed to air, exposed to bacteria, water coming through, carrying that into houses and taps and whatnot. not. And so if Hanover's system is pressurized and the pipes never got exposed to air, Henrico's system pressurized ever got exposed to air, immune essentially to the need for a boil water advisory. Thank you very much, Mr. Chan. Any other questions from Hanover's war members? Seeing none, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Any questions to my right for Ms.

[01:09:14] Pomeroy? Ms. Roucher? Mr. Pomeroy, the four options, I think, that you, mutual aid, contract, regional water authority, are any of those mutually exclusive? Oh, I see that there's one, the, I think it specifically said the contract with the Oversight Commission, those blend themselves together fairly well, but as far as the relationship of the four to each other?

[01:09:36] Yeah, they're not mutually exclusive, although to the extent you build towards some of the more encompassing aspects like if just hypothetically there were a full regional water authority approach, that might obviate the need for some third-party mutual aid type circumstances. But no, they're not mutually exclusive. You can really put the pieces together as creatively as you wish to solve the challenge in front of you. And I know your firm did an analysis for us. So So based upon that, and sorry if I'm being too blunt or jumping too straight to a point

[01:10:14] here, but is there a recommendation for regional water authority at this point? I would, Mr. Chair, respectfully say that recommendation is not coming from me at this point. It's certainly a viable option.

[01:10:29] I've seen it used very successfully in other parts of the Commonwealth. I could give you additional examples. Is there anything you know about our particular dynamic here, our situation? that would make it unfeasible or unwise.

[01:10:46] No, there's nothing I'm aware of. This suggests any sort of flags on that at all. And given the scope and the scale of, I mean, not just the two jurisdictions in this room, it sounds like, or I don't know, I would surmise that perhaps if we're going down a range of least actionable versus the most impactful, that a regional water authority is probably the most impactful option.

[01:11:13] Yes, I think that's fair to say. And, you know, going, I'm thinking about your earlier question a bit, that authority-type concept or elements of it that are wrapped into a contract really can be applied, I'd say, at any scale. There's nothing about the scale of our region that suggests any limitations on using these mechanisms. These mechanisms have been used, I'll say, from small communities across the state to, you know, I work with two of the largest in the state.

[01:11:43] Fairfax Water serves 2 million customers. The Hampton Road Sanitation District that I've served for 25 years serves 20 cities and counties through a single wastewater authority. So all the pieces are available to you, both legally and so far as I know, practically.

[01:12:03] And this has been done elsewhere. Any version of the options I went over has been done elsewhere in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I guess it just feels like the other three maybe feel piecemeal. if we have a pressing need and a lot of folks that are impacted that, you know, we're swinging for the fences, that maybe the water authority is the most comprehensive. Is that fair?

[01:12:30] Mr. Chair, that certainly could be a fair policy judgment, should that be, you know, the determination of, you know, your governing bodies. Certainly, we know how to do that. If when there's a will, there's a way on that type of thing. So, you know, you don't have any impediments. I speak to a lot of these issues from a legal perspective. That's my training and my day job. And these things are all doable when the policymakers decide that's the direction we should go.

[01:12:58] As a lawyer, I respect the way that you've handled these questions. Thank you. Any other questions from my colleagues? I said one, Mr. Palmer, I don't know if it's a question or a point.

[01:13:13] You cited the beach example, and it makes sense. I just want to use that as an example, not because our situation is anything close to that, but the water source is in the North Carolina-Virginia line. There is a long, I would imagine, pipeline through Norfolk where it's treated, and it serves the beach.

[01:13:28] Clear reason is the beach has a very difficult time producing fresh water down there, so that's what they use. It seems to me, unless I'm missing something, it's very linear. It's very one way. There's some danger there about their redundancy. I don't know how much they hold. And it's not really pertinent to this point other than the fact to say, and I'm speaking for just me, my vision for what we can do here collaboratively and together in this region would have more flexibility.

[01:13:56] And I'll say why. And my goal, again, it's just me, would be for our staffs to continue to explore the feasibility of a more flexible system that allows for multiple options in which we distribute water, thereby solving a redundancy issue.

[01:14:14] So, for example, if one was unavailable, it could be moved in multiple directions. And I say that by saying that I believe that our ability to move water from the west to the east is critically important to this process no matter where we go. whether it involves a regional collaborative or whether it involves mutual aid or whether it involves us serving water on our own. I believe that the ability for at least our jurisdiction and our friends in Hanover to have the ability to move what I would call an abundance of water.

[01:14:45] We have 15 billion gallons in a reservoir that is exciting as it is fundamentally prudent for our residents, our regional residents, as a system to provide surplus water. What we can't do is move it. We have 15 billion gallons of water, a plant in the west end that can produce 130 million gallons a day, and the ability to move one and a half to the east and to the north, and quite frankly, to the south, to move it. So my perspective, again, as one member of this dais

[01:15:23] is to say that 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 goals and otherwise we can't do anything else and we will always be reliant upon our system working or the city system working or the 8 million gallons from Oswald will always be consistently relying upon one line, one linear object. So I used your beach example only because it struck to me as a straight line that I would be a little worried if Lake

[01:16:02] Astin to the Virginia Beach line got severed. And I would picture a system that could flow water in multiple directions so that we have more options in our toolbox. And that, again, it's not a question, but that struck me with that example as a point for me. Any other questions for Mr.

[01:16:23] Pomeroy from my right? Mr. Chair, anything else for you all? Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Manager. Mr. Chair, just a, and Mr. Chair, Mr. Badeski, help me here as we transition to board comments. You know, as we began this meeting and conversations leading prior, leading up to this

[01:16:47] Meaning there are two issues at hand. One is the resiliency of Eastern Henrico and hence Hanover County. And second is the water treatment plant in the city and what we can do as a region to improve that facility.

[01:17:06] You know, Ms. Roundtree, when you went to the conversation of the authority, it is the administrator's hopes that we get direction to bring in Chesterfield County. There have already been conversations with the city of Richmond that several board members have had that I've had with the mayor.

[01:17:28] but all of us together starting that conversation so that we can get to the understanding of, you know, is it an authority? Is it a commission? Is it an oversight board with the water treatment plant? Is there any debt that we have on the facility? I mean, there are a lot of questions that we need to have answered before we get to, but I think collectively the folks up here and in the region can make that decision. And Mr. Pomeroy made a very compelling argument.

[01:17:58] You can pretty much do anything that you want when you set your mind to it, and there's collective agreement to it. So two goals that we are looking for is, and John and I are pretty calendar-driven.

[01:18:14] We would like to have the ability to come back to you with both those plans by the end of the calendar year, the plan for Henrico Hanover, and then potentially what happens with what are the next steps that you all would like to see from your regional counterparts and you know them better than we do on the elected side. So, Mr. Podeski, anything I missed before we transition? No, sir. John, I think you covered it most. I mean, we're also talking about,

[01:18:46] you know, today we are purchaser of a service. And as we talk about other models, certainly we need to keep in mind the partners that need to be at that table. And part of that conversation, I just want to remind folks, from January 6th on, and this offer stands to this day, both jurisdictions, Henrico and Hanover, continue to be open to offering technical support to the city in these processes.

[01:19:17] To date, we've been reactive to issues. This is the time to be talking about continuing ways to be proactive to avoid them, and we stand ready to continue to provide those resources and work together as partners. But I think we're about to transition to a conversation that we have board members that have residents that deserve further answers and commitments.

[01:19:40] And John hit the timelines. This is not something that we need to put on a back burner. It has to be a priority. Those conversations from electeds to electeds need to occur. Certainly at the staff level, we will continue them with your direction. But we see an urgency in this, not only of our relationships together, but also more regionally.

[01:20:06] Thank you, Mr. Budeski, Mr. Vitogas. Mr. Chair, if it's all right, we will transition away from staff presentations. And again, Matt, Bentley, Chris, thank you for your presentations and the information, both for us and for the members of the public that are tuned in.

[01:20:22] Mr. Chair, we're at a point really where it's open discussion. Certainly, if there's anyone from your team that wishes to start, Mr. Davis has raised his hand already, so it's up to you, sir. Mr. Davis, thank you. Thank you, Chairman Herzberg. Thank you, Chairman Schmidt.

[01:20:38] I do want to first start by saying it's always a pleasure to be with my board, convened, handling the business of the folks in Hanover or the region, respectively, depending on what the assignment is. Chairman Schmidt, members of the Henrico County Board, thank you for hosting us and working to put this together on such an important issue.

[01:20:59] Mr. Bertokas, Mr. Bickmeyer, thank you for having us here at this facility. And to echo the comments of Chairman Schmidt, members of the media, it's very, very important. You are instrumental in helping these localities throughout the region disseminate the information in a timely manner.

[01:21:16] So very grateful to all of you for the hard work that you put in and are putting in on this important issue. As I've reviewed the depth of this matter from January 6th to current, I see only two options. I've thought about a number of options and only see two.

[01:21:32] I think the most immediate and obvious approach to a solution is to establish a commission, not unlike regional boards that have served our constituencies, joint constituencies, well in this region for many years. I'm sitting at this dais here with members who have served with me, and I have served with them on a number of regional bodies.

[01:21:56] My board, Chairman Herzberg, with Waste Management in a number of different areas. Ms. Dibble serving on the Airport Commission on the Central Virginia Transportation Authority. I'm getting ready to turn over the reins to Reverend Nelson when I leave the chair ship to turn it over to him.

[01:22:12] I serve Mr. Rogish on the reasonable. And they're all successful. They're successful because we have a joint constituency and we have a joint desire to get the job done. And then we take care of our people who are performing those tasks. So I think that that's extremely important. Get the job done, put the resources in place. And so we don't have to reinvent the wheel here.

[01:22:33] and all. I'm not much for cliches, but it's really important. There's no invention that really needs to take place. I see the lawyers cringe a little bit, and I've noticed there's three lawyers on the front row here, all over on our side, but we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We can get these folks to start working on some paperwork, but our partners in Richmond need to understand the importance and the legacy of regional bodies, and I serve with many of them on regional bodies, so it should come as no surprise. I don't want to say whether we have an authority or a commission. I know an

[01:23:09] authority generally comes with some debt assumptions or maybe some assuming of some property. We can get our legal team to figure that out, but I don't think there's any question that the immediate need should be to start working on a regional commission. 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 source supplier, which the wastewater or which the water treatment plant is, is a food supplier. And there's a lot of security issues that are taking place. And

[01:23:45] there's a lot of supply issues that are taking place. So I'm hoping that they will see that as an offer to help. And it's with the greatest desire that our folks and our colleagues there in Richmond would accept this help as it comes right now from a voluntary basis on there.

[01:24:04] park while they have that option. The second option, I think, is to identify a path to partner with Henrico County for Hanover to have a reliable water source for our citizens. This partnership path should be identified and can run concurrent to working on the establishment of a commission, and I would just ask my colleagues certainly to support that, give some concurrence to it, as well as the folks over in Henrico, and then maybe jointly direct our administrator and manager to start working with their teams.

[01:24:41] The only two options I see is the establishment of the commission and then to aggressively work on a path to partnership with Henrico County for a water supply at some point in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for your comments.

[01:24:57] Any other comments from board members? Mr. Hudson. Thank you, Chairman Herdsberg. Just I will briefly echo Mr. Davis's comments, particularly since nearly 100 percent of my constituents in the Mechanicsville District are affected when these things go wrong.

[01:25:15] And I just really want to thank our respective county administration and staff for putting together and understanding the urgency and keeping this on top of the agenda and where we need to go.

[01:25:32] And I also appreciate the fact that when we lay out a timeline, we seem to lament that we want to get it done faster if we can so that we can, in fact, deliver a safety and security, because really that is a part, a factor of this.

[01:25:52] And so I just, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Davis. I'm not in a position to speak to whether or not it needs to be an authority or a commission, but there definitely needs to be some regional oversight. And I certainly am grateful for our friends in Henrico County, not only for hosting us, but for being willing to have the cooperation, not only for an emergency type situation, but to understand with those of us in Hanover that something needs to be done regionally as well.

[01:26:30] So thank you, everyone. And this meeting has been a great thing, and I appreciate everyone's time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your comments, Mr. Hudson. Any other comments from Hanover board members? Supervisor Dibble?

[01:26:46] Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also want to thank everyone for being here. I agree, as we stated early in the meeting, that our relationships regionally are strong and that we have a great track record of working together, especially our relationship with Hanover and with Henrico.

[01:27:09] We have mutual respect for each other, and we really do work on those relationships. And this is one of those times when I think because we've worked with those relationships, we're here today. And so I generally appreciate Henrico's willingness to work with us.

[01:27:28] I echo Mr. Davis's suggestions with regard to some sort of a commission or authority, because it's obvious to everybody, mostly our constituents, that Hanover County was quite vulnerable in this particular situation, and we were extremely vulnerable with very little control over how to fix it, minimize it, and so forth. And that's something that we need to change. And I think that by developing some sort of commission or authority that we can get there. I guess I also want to say, I think that we need

[01:28:08] to plan for the worst and hope for the best. This resiliency and contingencies, we just have to have those in place. And we don't. So I think at this point, it's time for us to roll up our sleeves, get together with Chesterfield, City of Richmond, look at what we can do together, and also move forward with some plans, some real plans that we can protect our citizens, because that's why we're all here. So again, thank you, Henrico, for coming to the table with us today, and we look

[01:28:45] forward to continuing these conversations. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your comments. Supervisor Floyd. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I'm so happy we've been able to get our two boards together to tackle a problem that affects all of our constituents. I do believe that in the immediate term, we need an oversight commission, I would definitely be in support of that. It helps with communication between localities and working towards, you know, smart, shared decision making.

[01:29:21] I'm very interested to see what happens with the study on the Pamunkey water treatment plant. And, you know, as Miss Dibble said, you know, we were vulnerable, and we do need to work together to fix that. We can't have that. So I appreciate everyone coming out today and working together on this problem that we share. So thank you guys. Thank you for your comments. Any other comments from Hanover board members? Mr. Chairman, I'll make my comments now, sir. Regional collaboration

[01:29:56] is important, and it's important not only for water issues, but other issues. Our county manager, Henrico manager mentioned the CVTA, which Mr. Davis also serves on, and we've seen the success in areas in roads and transportation of the CVTA. It's regional partnership, regional dollars being pulled together. For who? For the benefit of all of our residents in the region. We also have regional collaboration in our fire departments. I represent an area, East Hanover,

[01:30:33] that borders eastern Henrico, and I know that if there's a structured fire in Hanover, here comes the Henrico fire engine, and if there's a structured fire in eastern Henrico and we're near there, here comes the Hanover fire engine. So we already have a dependency on one another for certain things, such as fire and EMS, and these are great examples of how regional collaboration works.

[01:31:01] The key phrase I want to point out, and I'm going to put this in quotation marks, needs to be mutually beneficial. Mutually beneficial for each regional partner. And so it was my hope coming here today, our board being here today with our staff, that we sent a clear message to our neighbors in Henrico County that we as Hanover County Board of Supervisors in Hanover County, we are willing regional partners to work collaboratively in areas that are mutually

[01:31:40] beneficial on behalf of all of our residents. And we feel the same way even with the city water plant. We want to see the plant successful. We want to see the city residents have good, safe, reliable water. We are not just thinking about Hanover County here today. It's one of the reasons why we sent the message out that we wanted to meet with partners. We have staff available to assist the city to make sure that our citizens are taken care of and RICO citizens are taken

[01:32:19] care of. City residents are also taken care of. That's my vision for regional partnerships and regional collaboration. I want to thank Mr. Pomeroy, also Mr. Longshore and Mr. Chan for your very detailed and substantive presentations. I know that those presentations took a lot of time.

[01:32:41] They took a lot of work, and there was a lot of detail in there. And your work and your dedication to your work showed in your presentations. So thank you very much. And one final comment, Mr. Chairman. I do support some sort of regional commission along the lines of the type of regional commissions that we already see, that we already know work.

[01:33:07] Similar to the CDTA, we see that. We see that successful. We know that it works. You know, in Hanover, we have Parks and Recs Advisory. We have citizens who come and they tell us about our parks. I've said this before.

[01:33:23] I know the county administrators heard me say it many times. I know I don't know everything. So if we have citizens and other members of the community that have good ideas and they're willing to volunteer and help participate and work on a collaborative teamwork basis and level, then I'm certainly open to that sort of commission.

[01:33:42] And the final comment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the Henrico County Board of Supervisors for your willingness to meet with us. And thank you to Henrico County. Appreciate you all very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, members of the Hanover County Board of Supervisors.

[01:33:59] Thank you, Mr. Badeski. Any comments, discussion points from my colleagues? I'm sorry? Yeah, Mr. Rogish, are you prepared to go ahead? I'll go first. Yeah. So from my perspective, I looked at it three ways.

[01:34:18] One, short term, we have to develop, in my opinion, some sort of oversight or commission with the city of Richmond and Hanover, Henrico at a minimum. We don't have a solution for water other than that Richmond water plant for the next five years.

[01:34:36] So we have to have some oversight commission appropriate for the next five years. I also think between now and the next five years, we should go ahead and start building infrastructure required to get 20 MGD towards Hanover to get the required amount of water to our East End Henrico residents.

[01:34:57] So I would personally start that. I don't see that being mutually. I feel like that should be started sooner than later. That gives us the ability by the contract periods, whether that's 2035 for Hanover or 2040 for us, that gives us some flexibility to have the water coming from Henrico County towards those two locations.

[01:35:22] And then the third thing that I sort of pulled out was long-term, I think what Mr. Chan said, we don't have exactly the capacity for what our existing plant has for the water needs for the region long-term. So it may include long term by 2055. It has to include either the Richmond water plant or another source or another place to clean water.

[01:35:45] So that's the long term plan. But in the short term, I would say commission and start working on the infrastructure to get the water. That's from my perspective, what I'm seeing gives us a lot of flexibility. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ruggish. Ms. Rountree.

[01:36:01] I don't disagree with my colleague in particular with the need for something sooner rather than later. And I do think that our Richmond colleagues have been, you know, welcoming. We've had boots on the ground of Henrico staff in the Richmond plant since January.

[01:36:19] And I think that that has gone a long way towards us being able to tell our residents that we do have eyes on the situation and that they are open to that assistance. And I hate to use the word help, honestly, because I want to avoid any connotation of paternalistic behavior towards Richmond or the treatment facility.

[01:36:44] They were, when these agreements were made decades ago, kind of the, you know, the big fish in town. And certainly, you know, we can opine or comment on what has happened since then to get us where we are now.

[01:36:58] But I think, you know, we want to be mindful that this really is a collaboration. And, you know, it's not there's no I guess I don't know. I just want to go into these relationships in a mindset of we are united and it's not somebody, you know, Henrico coming in or Hanover or any other jurisdiction coming in and feeling we have to swoop in and, you know, save anybody.

[01:37:27] There are, as was stated, mutual benefits to us all working together, and I think that's the approach that it needs to take. Obviously, from my comments, it's probably not a secret that I am fully in support of a regional water authority, and I get we can call it.

[01:37:43] There are some distinctions between a commission and an authority. The authority, I think, gives us the widest range of tools to be able to take the broadest scope of action. And I'm always going to be for that. You know, the oversight commission, I don't I don't think is a bad first start, but I don't think it should be in lieu of also working towards, in my mind, which is the regional water authority, because this is a really complex issue.

[01:38:10] And so I do think that there are some distinctions between other commissions that we have that aren't as technical. I mean, look at everybody that's in this room. And frankly, even the media that's here is probably the most media I've seen in any one particular issue.

[01:38:26] So as many tools that we can give ourselves, and I see that as the authority, it's hard to have this full conversation recognizing we're just the two of us in here. And we certainly need to have Richmond's input and perspective as soon as possible as to where we might be going with this.

[01:38:42] Again, recognizing, as Reverend Nelson pointed out, we've got some deadlines, both of us coming up here pretty soon, that we've got to make some decisions on. So I see this as a good first step between two of multiple partners that need to be in a much larger conversation.

[01:38:59] And certainly time is of the essence. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Nelson? Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Hanover colleagues, for being here as a part of the discussion. This is the first time this has happened. I don't remember ever being a part of something like this before on this level, not with everybody.

[01:39:23] So I think that in itself says something. I got a lot of random notes, so I'll just try to bounce around. I do want to I want to what Sean Davis said earlier is important and it ties into what my colleague Miss Roundtree just said.

[01:39:44] There are all of these working groups. And so when I first came on the board in 2011, I think Sean and I are the longest serving persons, probably outside of Cynthia Newbill and maybe Ellen Robinson in our region now, the thought or premise was the region didn't work well together.

[01:40:05] And there's still some of that we hear out in the community that we don't work well together. But it's just simply not true. We do work well together. And I can think of like eight, seven or eight regional boards right now that we all have representatives on.

[01:40:26] Some of us have representatives and some not, but whether it's the Greater Richmond Partnership or the airport or Plan RVA or the Region Tourism Authority or the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, CBTA, Estated, Greater Richmond Transit Company, these are all regional bodies where there's a great level of collegiality and working relationships.

[01:40:53] We get things done on those in those on those boards, commissions and authorities. So regardless of whatever we as a region create, I'm certain that it will be successful. I'm looking at this short and long term. So I start with the long term first.

[01:41:17] No, I start short term first. I and, you know, we have a very supportive board. Three of our board members, their districts are served throughout water treatment plant now that we have, and partially some of Fairfield as well.

[01:41:36] The eastern part of Fairfield, central to eastern part of Fairfield district, and all of my district depends upon the city of Richmond water treatment plant. And other than those who have whales in Verona, like I heard of Mechanicsville, 100 percent, when the water treatment plan is down, it impacts all of us.

[01:42:00] So I just want to go on record. I know this is on YouTube and it's being recorded that when I'm thinking about water distribution, I am thinking exclusively about the people who are impacted every single time this happens.

[01:42:17] And so last week, as soon as a person started hearing there were some some challenges a week before last, you know, me included. There are people who who are like traumatized by what we went through back in January, which was literally like five days without water.

[01:42:37] And nobody wants to go through that again. And so as soon as people hear anything about a board water advisory, you know, we the water level, the pressure of the water level goes down. It is traumatic. And I know that 100 percent of the people who depend on the water treatment plant water wants the water treatment plant to be successful.

[01:43:05] And so I want to join in with my colleague and say to our colleagues in the city of Richmond, you have the asset. So the water treatment plant is in your city and our region, and we are not trying to big boy you into making a decision.

[01:43:29] We are simply saying that we are at we want to be at the table and whatever that looks like. And if that means a commission, fine. If it means an authority, I'm more along the lines of authority because authority means that we bring something to the table.

[01:43:49] Commission just means that we sit at the table, make recommendations or ideas, and then get somebody else or get the city to do the work. So I think that I know for Henrico, we have money and we talked about this during the budget season and we needed to use some of that to help modernize, bring the treatment plant, whatever.

[01:44:13] We don't know because we're not there. But I know I want our city council colleagues to know that we are not we come with a spirit of collegiality and wanting to work together.

[01:44:33] That's the that's the short term piece. So Varana residents do know that I just want to make sure that you have clean, reliable water that and that we have that the same way we make sure that our residents on the western part of the county are taken care of, that we want to make sure that we are doing the same thing for those who live in the east and water is essential.

[01:45:01] And so whatever we can do to work with our partners, to include Chesterfield, it would be incredible for all of us to work together and to do what we can to make sure that every person in our locality has water all the time. Long term, I've already shared this with our county manager.

[01:45:21] We need to do whatever we can to make sure that our residents in Henrico County don't ever have to go through not having water again. And so if that means working regionally to get the water treatment plan up and expanding lines in Henrico, then that's what I want to do.

[01:45:42] I just want to focus on our residents, making sure they're good. It's not a business decision. I know I heard somebody from Hanover talking about data centers and water. I don't want to hear that on outside. OK, so y'all keep the data center and water conversation in Hanover.

[01:45:59] And we want to make sure that we are focused on our residents and having access to water. Thank you, sir. Mr. Vice Chair. Well, I want to thank Mr. Pomeroy from Aqua Law, as well as Mr. Longshore, Mr. Chan, again, for presenting us with that exclusive and very comprehensive presentations.

[01:46:24] I also want to thank the chair of the board for Hanover and all of my colleagues on the Hanover board. Appreciate their willingness to come right across the street from Hanover and RICO. And welcome to my district, Fairfield. So happy to have y'all here. Get a cup of coffee, get some lunch.

[01:46:39] I mean, just help our meals tax. Mr. Reverend Nelson said at the beginning of what happened in January, he said this so many times, and I've repeated what he said when he said it.

[01:46:55] He said something works until it doesn't work. That's what he said. And we're here because the current setup does not work anymore. Richmond's water treatment plant was built in 1924. It's 101 years old.

[01:47:13] I pastor church in Henrico, but I have members in Chester Henrico and Hanover. And as Ms. Reverend Nelson stated, too often the city gets a bad rap because of their crumbling infrastructure and challenges that they face. But when you concentrate poverty in the city, when you take roads and highways to communities and separate them, when you have state buildings and federal buildings that you cannot tax and your tax base cannot be expanded like the surrounding counties, there are certain challenges that are unique to Richmond that the counties do not have.

[01:47:43] And so, first and foremost, that has to be acknowledged. I want to say also that we need to walk and chew gum at the same time. Hanover-Heriko, we entered a relationship in 1974. Heriko entered into a relationship with the city in 1994.

[01:47:59] Hanover has 10 years. We have 15 years. We can break our agreement in five, but we cannot break it because we do not have the capability or the ability to provide water for our entire county. When I have my residents past Chamberlain who are unable to get water from Chamberlain all the way to Route 5, that's problematic.

[01:48:22] And last week I started getting messages from people saying, Pastor Cooper, please make sure my water doesn't go off any longer. When you have people who could not bathe, who could not wash dishes, could not have drinking water, it was traumatizing.

[01:48:37] So I agree there has to be a partnership collaboration between all of us who have an arrangement with the city to be consumers because they have the responsibility to deliver a product which they have not been able to do successfully. because of issues that they are experiencing. And the only way that they can help us to be confident and comfortable is to expand the relationship as far as our ability to be a part of the process. I know there's oversight agreements, commissions, and regional water authorities, but we need to look at which one would work best in this instance. I do believe

[01:49:12] we have the ability to bring financial resources to the city to help them. It's not our desire to take over, but it's our desire to have a better relationship and make us more comfortable for our community. Reliability, redundancy, and resiliency is our goal. And we have to figure this out. We have to be solution focused. We have to be forward thinkers. And we have to make sure that generations after us don't ever have to be in this place again. So I'm very desirous of a sit down with Richmond City Council people, because it's one thing to have staff talking to staff, but it's also another to have electives talking electives.

[01:49:49] I think that we need to do that just like we have done today with Hanover because again, there are certain questions that have to be asked and certain questions that need to be answered. And the only way it's going to happen, it's not going to be behind the mayor. It's going to be behind those of us who elected to serve our residents. So I'm going to suggest to our county manager, I'm going to reach out to the city that we need to have that conversation because it's important and imperative for us to do so.

[01:50:12] So again, thank you all for being here and I look forward to us being solution focused. I'm forward thinking, I'm figuring out how to walk and chew gum, how to make our system more resilient, reliable, redundant, building our east, west to east, west to east water network, as well as making sure we can help the city to shore up their crumbling infrastructure.

[01:50:33] Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Cooper. You know, from my perspective, obviously, I'll give you my honest opinion, and then we'll try to close this up, gathering all the comments that we've heard today. And again, thank you to everyone who put in the time to be here today.

[01:50:49] I provided my personal feelings earlier, and I will again stress that my personal comments, as have just been shared by my colleagues, are to continue the progress for the East-West transmission tool. I believe that's important for our future and to work collaboratively towards strategic solutions and what is possible with regard to collaborative relationships with the city.

[01:51:11] I do believe those things can operate concurrently. As I sit here and we close this meeting out, it's not lost on me, and I hope it's not lost on anyone else in this room. And for you streaming in, please try to vision this for me. As we look out this window of this building, I can literally see the trees in Hanover.

[01:51:30] Water supply to our residents, to our visitors, to our businesses knows no boundaries. It does not. All residents want the same thing. They want reliable, redundant, safe water. They all do. There's nothing that matters on a boundary line for that. And quite frankly, what we're doing here today is evidence that we don't even care about how the boundaries are existing as we talk about having a redundant and a reliable supply for our residents.

[01:51:59] You know, in summarizing these comments, Mr. Budeski, Mr. Vertokas, you're looking for guidance from our two boards, from our two elected bodies on where to go from here and what actions that we that we that we need and that we're asking for. And I think you just heard them. You know, really clearly you heard Mr. Davis begin with options, clear options that he believes are the solution.

[01:52:21] And I think you heard every one of us agree that those options need to continue to be explored because they are probably the options that are going to be there at the end of the day. How they are formed is really up to the staff and up to us as we proceed through that process. But Mr. Davis hit it perfectly, and I think I underlined what he said about they can be done concurrently.

[01:52:41] You heard Mr. Cooper just say we can do multiple things at the same time. I think it's important to know that, Mr. Batokas, Mr. Badeski, I think you just heard from 12 of us that these things need to be pursued and they need to be pursued together. Mr. Hudson used the word timeline and urgency.

[01:52:56] Ms. Dibble used the word vulnerable. I think we can all agree with that. Ms. Floyd said she supports an oversight commission. I think we all touched on that. And Chair Hertzberg said that it can be mutually and it should be mutually beneficial. I think we heard those words clearly. Mr. Rogish was also very clear that the need for some type of oversight commission is important, especially in the next five years as we have to work within the system that we have.

[01:53:21] Mr. Rogish was clear about pursuing the tool of the cross-county network system, a transmission system for water, regardless of the option. And he was also clear on the long term, must include RVA as an option. And I think he's right. In the capacity issues we saw, we can't discard the fact that a plant, a working plant in the city, is a valuable resource and a tool.

[01:53:45] Ms. Roundtree, and I underscored it, said any conversation from this moment forward should include Chesterfield and RVA in the conversation. I fully agree. Mr. Nelson went through the fact, and I'm glad that he brought this out, regional cooperation does exist. We see it every single day. I think Mr. Davis mentioned it. A few of us mentioned it. We do it every single day.

[01:54:03] Mr. Nelson also said that whatever it takes, and I know we've heard that from him before, Mr. Cooper, I mentioned we can do multiple things at the same time, our desire to utilize collective resources and have RVA in the conversation. So, Mr. Manager, Mr. Administrator, that you heard that, I think it's really clear.

[01:54:19] I don't think there's any ambiguity coming out of this meeting right now, what needs to happen. And I would say staff meetings on, I would say you've heard two levels, one conceptually and strategically on how a regional collaborative look, what it looks like, the framework.

[01:54:36] Mr. Pomeroy said it exists. He said it can be done. Well, let's see it. How can it exist for a regional collaborative effort? The other level is the process and timeline of how we continue to move forward on what I think we collectively agree is an east to west tool and a resource in our bucket.

[01:54:52] So we are flexibility in how we move water. Those two things should be in the conversations, what the timelines look like, what the fiscal impacts look like, and how those things tie together. And those next steps obviously include conversations with the City of Richmond and Cheshire Field.

[01:55:09] On a continued level, obviously continued progress on the capacity and how we move water from east to west. And closely in the short term, I would say that you heard that we need to continue to work with the City of Richmond in the short term, Both, as Mr. Badeski said, about offering technical support, continue really close communications with the mayor and their staff.

[01:55:30] And then, as Mr. Badeski said, a proactive approach to really how we mitigate the next five years. Mr. Chair, I think that summarized what I heard from our collective groups, if you agree. Is there anything I missed, sir? I think that's a very good, accurate summary, sir. Thank you.

[01:55:51] Thank you, sir. Mr. Badewski, Mr. Patokas, any closing comments from you all? No closing comments other than I think we have our marching orders. I have total clarity, and I know John and I will find a way to communicate with both boards as we progress forward with both of these, both the resiliency project and bringing everyone to the table as far as the water treatment plan.

[01:56:20] John, do you have anything? I believe it's crystal clear. I appreciate the board's direction on this here today and your commitment to working together and with the region. Look forward to doing that work in partnership. Thank you, sir. Is Mr. Chair anything further from your board? Seeing none, no, sir.

[01:56:37] Anything from my colleagues? The only note I missed, I'm sorry, as you work together, I mentioned the word staff, but I think I heard from my colleagues and I think I heard from some of the Hanover colleagues that as you feel the need to involve elected officials, I think it is important for us to continue to have these conversations.

[01:56:53] And as you two feel to plug in elected officials to those conversations, I would say we both would support that as you see fit. Mr. Manager, Mr. Badeski, fellow colleagues, I do believe this brings our meeting to a close.

[01:57:09] I want to be respectful of your all's time. I think we're on time for what we plan, but I think we also, I don't think we left anything on the sidelines. I want to thank everyone. Again, I want to thank the media, members of the staff that prepared for the actions today and the conversation today.

[01:57:25] And as we close out, I want to give my colleagues from Hanover a chance to adjourn their meeting per their protocol, and we'll do the same with Henrico. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The June 11th Hanover County Board of Supervisors meeting is here adjourned. Thank you, sir. I will do the same for Henrico as we close our meeting, and I will thank everyone again for their time. Thank you all.

[01:57:45] Thank you.

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