Bill Jones of the Quay County Health Council told the commission that local water systems must follow two layers of notification requirements: the federal Safe Drinking Water Act sample-reporting rules and a state requirement for emergency contamination notifications.

Jones said the federal rule requires public water systems to sample and publish results and that the state rules require multilingual distribution of reports and emergency notices tied to the population’s language mix. "My recommendation is to provide that Spanish version of the report on the website, especially if you have it already available," Jones said.

He outlined potential triggers for emergency notifications (natural disasters, chemical spills, water-main breaks, equipment failures) and recommended multiple notification channels: city website and social media, direct radio alerts, newspaper notices for ongoing incidents and a door-to-door or community-organization outreach strategy for populations less likely to get online notices. Jones also described county alert systems (one requiring sign-up; one that pushes to all phones in a radius) and recommended that the city designate a single authorized contact to work with the county emergency manager to activate those systems.

City Manager Renee responded that the city planned a work session on the water system and that the city would incorporate the health council’s recommendations when it meets with prospective water-system providers. Staff said that providers the city is considering had indicated they would implement similar notification protocols.

The presentation was informational; no formal action was recorded in the transcript excerpt.