2020-01 Performance Audit Report: Contingency Plans at County of Hawai'i's Department of Water Supply

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• Operations Emergency Action Plan (August 10, 2017) (See Appendix B) — Is a companion document to the "North Kona Response and Responsibilities Plan" (above) and describes internal communication procedures during an emergency, back-up water sources, and rotating shut-off implementation. We reviewed these three plans and found they did not provide detailed information (i.e., the "who, what, when, where, why, and how"), address emergency contingency plans by district, describe types of water restrictions and when restrictions should be implemented, or clearly document the Department's communication procedures. 1a. Contingency plans should contain sufficient detail including prioritizing and clearly documenting emergency procedures. Although DWS developed three contingency plans during the 2017 well breakdowns, they should contain detailed procedures for staff to follow. • Kona Operation Initial Plan - While the Kona Operations Initial Plan contains some step-by-step instructions, it does not contain sufficiently detailed information to ensure emergency procedures are completed efficiently. In addition, the Plan does not specifically include who is responsible, when these procedures should take place, or what aggressive conservation measures will be taken. Finally, as further described below in 1 c, the Plan does not define the different types of water usage restrictions. • North Kona Response and Responsibilities Plan - The North Kona Response and Responsibilities Plan (Figure 1) shows each process and procedure which occurs simultaneously. The Plan contains divisional responsibilities but it does not list the individual personnel responsible for each step or procedure, the timing or triggers for each step, the communications protocol, or any potential water usage restrictions. In addition, there are no references or instructions to refer to the companion document "Operations Emergency Action Plan". • Operations Emergency Action Plan - The Emergency Operations Action Plan (Appendix B) details the individuals responsible for duties but does not describe when to communicate, whom to communicate with, and what to communicate. Furthermore, the back-up water source and the rotating shut-off implementation sections only contain questions to be asked - it does not indicate the steps to take based on the answers to the questions. Department of Water Supply Contingency Plan Audit Results 18