Few would dispute the intrinsic value of regionalizing public services to create cost savings, increased efficiencies and more centralized administration.

With that in mind, a recommendation from the Trumbull County Water Advisory Board makes eminently good sense. Specifically, that 12-member panel chaired by Champion Township Trustee Rex Fee recently advised Trumbull County commissioners to study the possibility of forming one single regional authority to purify and supply water to residents and businesses throughout Trumbull and Mahoning counties.

Given this newspaper’s longstanding backing for regionalization of schools and other public services to better leverage the many benefits of economies of scale, we second the panel’s motion and urge leaders of both counties to seriously study the possibility of forming a single regional water district to provide potable water and wastewater services to our 400,000-plus residents.

In that study, several key points merit intensive review.

First, one could argue that the dominant water provider in the Mahoning Valley — the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District — is outdated and outmoded. According to Matthew Blair, former 21-year president of the MVSD, the local district is the last one remaining in Ohio operating as an Ohio Revised Code 6115 sanitary district rather than the more progressive ORC 6119 regional water and sewer district.

Perhaps that setup that began operating in 1932 has outlived its maximum effectiveness and today deserves a major overhaul or at least a minor tuneup.

Long-term cost savings to both water rate payers and taxpayers also provide a compelling argument for consideration of reinventing the Valley’s water distribution system. In recent years, virtually all of the many fractured water districts and subdistricts in the Valley have been forced to raise rates – sometimes significantly — to address needed repairs and renewal to their aging and deteriorating infrastructure and to comply with increasingly rigid environmental protection regulations. Shared resources, increased administrative efficiency and streamlined operations all could conceivably result in significant cost savings over the status quo.

Regional water districts, after all, have been known to achieve considerable savings on chemicals, equipment, maintenance and personnel by sharing services on a large scale.

What’s more, a single regional authority could at last level the playing field for rate payers. The current system, in which cities purchase water from MVSD member cities Youngstown and Niles and then pass those costs onto their residents, has resulted in large disparities in rates.

As Blair pointed out, “You’ve got the same water — there’s nothing different about it — but it’s twice as expensive in Liberty as it is to a Niles resident.”

In addition to potential cost stabilization, one unified water district would make much more efficient use of Meander Reservoir, the source of MVSD’s water to its 200,000 customers. Currently, MVSD pumps about 29 million gallons per day when it actually has a 60-million-per-day capacity. One central water purifier also would eliminate the need for other costly water processors, such as those now operating in Warren and Newton Falls.

With so much going for it, it’s hardly surprising that preliminary proposals to study a regional water authority for the Valley have garnered support from the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and the Western Reserve Port Authority.

The state of Ohio also rises as a strong proponent. According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the long-term benefits of a regionalized water system outweighs the initial capital expenditures in creating it. The EPA touts their increased infrastructure resilience, enhanced local growth potential and overall operating cost savings. Such districts, the EPA says, have abilities to better meet new water standards and are better equipped to receive money-saving grants and loans for costly improvements.

Of course, none of those many improvements would happen overnight. Revamping a nearly century-old water distribution system would require careful, detail-oriented study, realistic examination of potential cost constraints and a strong and committed will to improve the overall processing and delivery of our most precious natural resource.

Toward those ends, we urge leaders of both Mahoning and Trumbull counties, along with representatives of MVSD and other water districts in the Valley, to begin a meeting of the minds toward potentially drafting a formal plan and filing a petition for such an authority with a common pleas court for review, public hearings and eventual approval.

We therefore join the advisory council in believing that a more efficient and less costly regional water district is well worth the time and effort to investigate. Let’s get the ball rolling now.