FAIRLAWN -- The New River Valley Planning District has a head start in meeting new state regulations for regional water supply and distribution plans.

The State Water Control Board approved draft regulations earlier this week requiring local governments to submit such plans in three to six years on a staggered schedule based on population. Gov. Mark Warner is expected to approve the draft in September, and it will require plans from all counties, cities and towns.

Planning district staff members briefed local government officials Thursday night on the water planning, as well as on a regional telecommunications initiative to bring a broadband Internet system to the valley.

Each locality will be required to hold a public hearing, allow public comment and adopt a water plan covering the next 50 years. But localities in the New River Valley can defer to the regional plan now being developed and avoid the cost and paperwork of doing individual plans.

"Right now's the time to do this, because the money's out there to do it. In three to six years, you're going to be required to do it, anyway," said Dave Rundgren, the commission's executive director. "But the one plan will meet the needs of all the localities," he said. "You can adopt that plan and not have to invest a lot more money."

Staff member Shawn Utt said the New River Valley Development Corp., a nonprofit entity that can seek funds for which planning district commissions do not qualify, has gotten more than $200,000 in Rural Development grant money to study water supply needs over the past three years. Virginia Tech has also been involved in pinpointing critical water needs in the valley.

The goal of such planning is to find backup water sources, lower water delivery costs though a regional system and be prepared for situations like the drought that persisted in the area from 1998 to 2003. Utt said people generally seem to believe the drought is over, but current rain levels are still six inches below normal and a plan is needed to assure supplies if conditions worsen.

The areas of highest need are Floyd County, he said, and parts of Montgomery and Pulaski counties south of Interstate 81.

Nearly 25 local officials from Pulaski and Giles counties, the city of Radford and towns of Pulaski, Pearisburg and Narrows showed up for the briefing, but representatives from Montgomery and Floyd counties did not.

The average cost to produce a gallon of water in the New River Valley, leaving out the Radford Army Ammunition Plant and Virginia Tech, is $2.45 per 1,000 gallons based on last year's study data, Utt said. The average estimated cost of production and distribution from a regional system would be closer to $1.65, he said.

Commission staff member Sheila Smith outlined plans for developing a valleywide broadband telecommunications network. The estimated cost is $10 million, but that does not include the possibility of making existing broadband lines, from local governments and private providers such as the Citizens cooperative based in Floyd, part of the system. This would reduce the cost and extend the reach of the existing systems.

Broadband telecommunications are seen as a major economic development tool, and they are already being developed in far Southwest Virginia and Southside Virginia, regions that have access to Tobacco Institute funds unlike the New River Valley, Rundgren said. But the valley will need that kind of infrastructure to compete for businesses and jobs.