RICHMOND -- Gov. Mark Warner will ask lawmakers to make a record one-time investment toward reducing pollution of the Chesapeake Bay and spend additional money to upgrade sewage treatment plants outside the bay watershed.

Warner said Tuesday that he also will request funds to connect more households, primarily in Southwest Virginia, to public drinking water systems.

The $242.5 million in water quality improvements will be part of the two-year budget plan that Warner submits to the General Assembly's key money committees on Friday. The new budget will take effect July 1, nearly six months after Warner leaves office.

Most of the new money -- about $200 million -- will go toward sewage treatment plant upgrades in the bay watershed to meet new discharge standards adopted last month by the state Water Control Board. The funding will supplement a mandatory deposit of $56.6 million from the state's current budget surplus into the Water Quality Improvement Fund.

Warner said his proposal represents "the largest single contribution any state in the bay watershed has made" to the Chesapeake restoration effort.

Warner made the announcement in his Cabinet room surrounded by supportive lawmakers from both parties, including House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford County. Howell last year led an unsuccessful effort to establish a 10-year, $500 million funding commitment for bay cleanup efforts. Howell said he has not given up on pursuing a longer-term commitment, but called Warner's proposal "a true shot in the arm."

The governor's spending plan also will include $25 million to provide grants to upgrade public sewage treatment systems in localities outside the bay watershed. Warner also will seek $10 million to connect more homes to safe drinking water systems, expanding an effort that already has connected 70,000 Virginians to such systems in the last four years.