Environmental Health Bureau

The Bureau of Environmental Health is responsible for Land & Water Resources, Permits and Plan Review, and Inspections in the county.

Programs: 

• Food - Food Control staff inspects all public food service facilities, including hospitals, nursing homes, schools, miscellaneous institutions, and assisted living facilities serving 17 or more residents. Staff inspects food vendors at public events, farmers’ markets, mobile food units, and snowball stands. Staff also investigates cases of foodborne illness and outbreaks, citizen complaints, and illegal food service operations.
• Community Hygiene - The Rabies & Vector Control staff investigates animal bite reports and provides low-cost rabies vaccination clinics for dogs, cats, and ferrets. Staff also conducts annual inspections of pet stores and exotic bird breeders, and issues psittacine bird permits. The staff assists communities with the prevention and control of rodent and insect infestations and provides mosquito larvicidal treatments when warranted. The Infectious Disease staff at the health department investigates possible human rabies exposure cases while the Environmental Health staff investigates animal rabies exposure cases and assists with the surveillance of Zika, West Nile, and other arboviruses of concern.
• Zoonotic Disease
• Water & Wastewater - The Environmental Water Quality staff reviews applications for well permits in accordance with State regulations, conducts grout inspections, evaluates well completion reports, and ensures that unsafe wells are properly abandoned and sealed. Additionally, the staff collects water samples from private water supplies for analysis of bacteria, nitrates, turbidity, and sand. They review results, issue certificates of potability, respond to concerns about the safety of private drinking water supplies, and collect miscellaneous water samples to screen for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), synthetic organic compounds (SOCs), and heavy metals.