AUBURN — Androscoggin County commissioners questioned the director of the county Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday about his department’s response to the recent water crisis in Lisbon.

Residents did not have safe drinking water for roughly 24 hours last week when sludge entered the system due to a pump malfunction, raising the amount of arsenic to unsafe levels.

Commissioners wanted to know how the agency responded to the public health incident.

The EMA provides a link between the county and the state to address and react to problems in an emergency dealing with preparedness, recovery and mitigation.

Commissioner Garrett Mason of Lisbon said many residents complained about not being informed about the water contamination for hours. He directed several questions at EMA Director Chris Dillman about why the agency did not issue a do-not-drink order or even a public health alert.

Dillman explained that the EMA does not have the authority to issue such orders. He said only the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has the means to send out a communitywide warning about drinking water.

EMA would need to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and get better technology to have that capability, Dillman said.

Asked by Mason if he told town officials that they needed to contact the Maine CDC, Dillman admitted that he did not relay that message.

According to Mason, it took a call from a member of the state Legislature to Gov. Janet Mills to get such an order delivered.

Dillman said he was touring an EMA facility in Cumberland County when he first got word of the contamination. He brought up a few cases of water given to him by Cumberland County, then reached out to companies such as Walmart and Hannaford to get water delivered to Lisbon.

He said Walmart provided two tractor-trailers filled with cases of water on pallets.

Asked by Mason if EMA had storage space at its Lewiston facility to stockpile water and perhaps food, Dillman said it did not.

Mason said the county did not expect the EMA to have enough water and supplies available to meet the needs of everyone in the community, but to “prime the pump” in the initial stages.

Commissioners encouraged the EMA director to evaluate his department’s response to last week’s incident in order to improve preparedness.. That includes having emergency phone numbers available to give to town officials, Chairperson Sally Christner of Turner said.

With money still available from American Rescue Plan Act, the board also asked him to develop a list of supplies and updated capital equipment that should be upgraded before the next emergency.