(BIVN) – On January 17, 2017, a Water Restriction Notice for North Kona was issued when four wells in the area were under repairs or offline at the same time.

It was the start of a difficult year in Kona for the Department of Water Supply and their customers… by the summer of 2017, matters became worse.

On June 29, 2017, an Emergency Water Restriction Notice was issued due to the failure of a fifth well. Water customers were told to limit water usage to health and safety needs only.

By the end of the year, with the repair of one of the wells, officials hoped to downgrade the Water Restriction to a voluntary 10 percent (10%) conservation notice.