COLUMBUS, Ind. — Bartholomew County officials say it is not their responsibility to use the Everbridge county-wide warning and notification system to notify utility customers of “boil water” advisories, it is the responsibility of the utilities.
After a number of boil water advisories were issued in December by area water companies, the Bartholomew County Commissioners on Thursday discussed what should be the extent of the county’s involvement for notifying the public when their tap water may pose a health hazard.
Boil water advisories are generally sent out by utility companies after a water main or water line break, or work on water lines, that could have allowed hazardous substances, including E.coli bacteria, to infect the water.
The work session discussion, which included Bartholomew County Emergency Management Director Shannon Hinton and E911 emergency operations manager Todd Noblitt, were largely centered on whether the county’s nine-year-old Everbridge system should be used to notify residents of boil water advisories — also known as boil water orders or boil water notices.
Following the meeting, Hinton said the consensus was that these types of notifications are the responsibility of the utility company — not local government.
“Now, if it were a bigger situation like we had a couple of years ago, when there were a potentially contaminated well, that’s different,” Hinton said. “That is longer term and has a bigger effect on people, as opposed to an advisory calling for boiling water a couple of days.”
One issue with the Everbridge system is that it can’t instantly issue area-specific warnings for a boil water advisories as it does for the National Weather Service warnings, Hinton said.
“It would physically take a person to send that out,” the emergency management director said. “How much time would we spend doing that versus everything else?
When the Everbridge system is activated for too many reasons, people will stop paying attention to the alerts and warnings, Noblitt said. He and Hinton said they have received several complaints of the system being used too much.
“And if we start doing it for the utility companies, we’ll need to start doing it for the gas and electric companies,” Hinton said. “How much time would we spend doing nothing but sending out Everbridge notices?”
That may not be a fair comparison in the mind of Bartholomew County resident Bill Kozar.
“It’s not like a problem with the power company,” Kozar wrote in a letter to The Republic. “When the power goes out, you don’t need an advisory to tell you!”
About Everbridge
Sometimes referred to as Reverse 911, the Everbridge system sends out text messages, automated calls and emails to residents who choose to receive them when emergency dispatchers trigger an incident notification alert. Residents who have signed up for Everbridge can either opt in or opt out for more than 100 different types of location-specific alerts. Everbridge is offered free to all Bartholomew County residents, with the cost paid through city and county taxes.
Usually, Everbridge is used to provide maps and detailed notices, such as specific start and stop times, on threatening weather conditions. But it has also been used to guide residents way from other emergency situations such as the Dec. 9 fire at the Two Worlds housing complex and the Carpet Mania fire of 2018.
Thursday’s discussions were prompted after four boil water advisories involving three local utilities were issued in December. Afterwards, several residents said they were unaware that advisories had been issued until several hours or a day after the fact.
The first advisory occurred Dec. 14 in the Burnsville, Elizabethtown, and Grammer areas. Two advisories issued on Dec. 18 impacted Timbercrest Drive in Columbus’ Eastgate addition, as well as homes in the vicinity of Sixth and Hutchins streets in the city’s historic section. Finally, a Dec. 26 advisory was issued in the Bethany area, as well as in the vicinity of both Baker Hollow and Georgetown roads.
The Indiana State Department of Health does not list boil water advisories as emergencies, but rather recommended precaution.
The health department also states anyone under a boil water advisory who experiences symptoms of gastroenteritis, such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps should seek immediate medical attention.
So what legal obligations do utility companies have regarding public notification of a boil water advisory?
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management states it “should include television, radio, newspaper or postings, depending on the size of the user base.” Federal regulations simply call for notifications on radio and television.
But customers including Kozar say they were home or hours or an entire day before learning they were under a boil water advisory, some learning about it from friends or family.
“Consumers are unknowingly left to drink water unfit for consumption for possibly 24 hours or longer,” Kozar said.
Caught unaware
Some said they didn’t know about the advisories because they were out of town on holiday visits when the advisories were issued. That includes Dan and Mila Dempsey of County Road 850W, who were in South Carolina when the advisories was made the day after Christmas.
Elementary school teacher Anya Cutter says she was completely unaware her residence was under a boil water advisory before providing water to her large herd of goats. While the western Bartholomew County woman says she can’t provide a definite connection, an unusually high number of her animals showed symptoms compatible with E.coli infection just days after the advisory was issued, Cutter said.
Due to holiday staffing and a large number of accumulated emails over the Christmas weekend, an email from Southwestern Bartholomew Water Corp. regarding the Dec. 26 advisory was not posted on The Republic website until Monday, and not printed until Tuesday.
But among those who reportedly received no advisory notification, many said they don’t subscribe or listen to traditional news services.
On the night of Dec. 26, a decision was made not to make robocalls for the advisories to Southwest Bartholomew County Water customers because it was too late at night, utility general manager Darlene Keller said. Everbridge subscribers often choose a similar “Quiet Time” option (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) not to receive overnight alerts until a warning has been issued.
It also takes time to put the robocall system used by Southwest Water into action because it requires building files for those who should be notified, she said. Besides newspaper notifications, Southwest will also make notifications through radio or door-to-door if the area is small enough, Keller said.
Robocall issues
One significant problem with robocalls is that, due to increasing spam and scam messaging and calls, many people will not answer a call or listen to a voicemail from a number they don’t recognize, said Mila Dempsey, who resides off County Road 850W, a couple miles east of Brown County.
Columbus City Utilities does have customers who voluntarily provide them with cell phone numbers and email addresses, so they can be notified of a potential emergency regarding their water, Executive Director Scott Dompke said.
E911 officials have long maintained that Everbridge has been successful because residents feel confident their telephone number will only be used to alert them during emergency situations.
“But not everybody is willing to give (utility companies) their phone number,” Dompke said. “They are afraid we are going to call to try to collect money from them.”
Water quality advisories made by Columbus City Utilities depend on the severity of the circumstances, he said.
“There’s not a one-size-fits-all for a boil advisory, because they are subject to the nature of the problem,” Domke said. “Generally, we try to identify the area, create a map, contact our notification agency and go through records on customer information systems. We set up a robocall for those we have numbers.”
Other notification methods in the city include notifying the newspaper and radio stations, he said.
But with more residents relying on computers, iPhones and Smartphones to stay informed, digital devices are often the only way to alert a significant portion of the public.
“We’ve heard that several times, and sometimes, not very nicely,” said Jay Edwards, a manager at Eastern Bartholomew County Water Corp.
In the past, Eastern Bartholomew has notified radio stations, print media and, if feasible, gone door-to-door to make notifications, Edwards said. Notices printed on paper hangers might be left on the door if nobody is home.
However, the utility has recently invested in new software that Edwards says will allow them to start sending texts and emails about advisories and warnings to a specific area, Edwards said. Eastern Bartholomew hopes to test that system during the next boil water advisory, he said.
All of the utility managers said they are willing to meet with local government and health experts to discuss ways to ensure residents under a boil water advisory are being notified in the fastest and most efficient means.
