BROOKFIELD — Officials from Hubbard city and Brookfield, Vienna and Hubbard townships are considering working with Aqua Ohio to provide water to the state Route 7 corridor between Yankee Lake and the Hubbard city line where many residents get their water from wells.

Representatives from Aqua Ohio met Tuesday via Zoom with officials from the four communities about options to get water from Hubbard city extended to the three townships. Brookfield Trustee Gary Lees said options discussed include asking Aqua Ohio to help provide water or seeing if the company is interested in purchasing the waterlines from Trumbull County.

“This was discussed years ago, and we need to see if there will be any interest from the townships today,” Lees said.

Lees said Brookfield has two water suppliers, with part of the township serviced by Aqua Ohio and the other part by Trumbull Water.

“We feel we need to look at one supplier. Aqua could provide this service. We are close to the Ohio-Pennsylvania line, so Aqua could serve Brookfield and Vienna. By helping other communities, we help ourselves in the long run,” Lees said.

Vienna Trustee Phil Pegg said because of issues with Niles, Vienna is interested in getting water from Aqua as it has in the past.

Lees said Hubbard, which gets water from Aqua, could help provide water to the townships as part of joint economic development district. He said Aqua provides water to the Flying J and Truck World businesses, as well as homes nearby.

Lees said parts of Ridge Road off state Route 7 and Stewart Road have wells. He said Yankee Lake will be getting sanitary sewer lines in a year and water is needed there as well because the area now has well water.

Tony Mancari, director of municipal services for Aqua Ohio, said different options are on the table for a regional approach to serve the townships’ and city’s immediate and future water needs.

“Our interest in providing water to the corridor area is there. We will see where the need is and where waterlines currently exist,” Mancari said.

He said Hubbard city gets water from Aqua’s Shenango facility and possibly can provide water to the neighboring townships.

“The EPA is very favorable in providing funding to private entities such as Aqua in forms of low-interest loans under the umbrella of regionalization. The EPA would like to see many of the smaller public water systems consolidate,” Mancari said.

Mancari said various options are available, such as Aqua could buy the distribution system in Trumbull County to serve Hubbard, Brookfield and Vienna townships.

Jennifer Johnson, area manager of Aqua Ohio Struthers Division, said the Aqua Ohio water system purchases water from Aqua Pennsylvania Shenango just like Hubbard city does. Aqua also operates a Masury water system. She said this water source likely would be the place to get water for the Route 7 corridor.

Hubbard Mayor Ben Kyle said the city has a good working relationship with the Aqua Pennsylvania Shenango system.

“If we all stick together, we have a very unique opportunity in this part of the county to show we have force in numbers for collaborating for growth for business and residential developments. If we do this together in the form of a JEDD, the Route 7 corridor will benefit. There are people from Yankee Lake south to Hubbard city who need water. There are opportunities for improvements in this area. We want to help provide the growth,” Kyle said.

Hubbard trustee Fred Hanley said the JEDD with Hubbard city includes the U.S. Route 62 / Interstate 80 area where Truck World is located.

bcoupland@tribtoday.com