Grant County residents and visitors expect the food we eat, the pool water in which we swim, the water we drink, and the material we discard are all properly handled and do not pose a risk to our health. Grant County Health District Environmental Public Health (EPH) is set up to help maintain this expectation and reliability.
The highly skilled and professional EPH staff work in the field with businesses, individuals, agencies and others through education, notification and enforcement activities to ensure that community expectations are met and that public health is protected. This requires the addition of multiple protective steps designed to prevent human exposure to illness-causing germs, chemicals and other possible health threats.
At Grant County Health District, EPH staff manage many programs including Food Safety, Drinking Water, On-Site Sewage Disposal (septic), Land Use (subdivisions other special projects), Water Recreation (public pools, water slides, hot tubs), new and remodeled K-12 School facility reviews and Solid Waste Facilities. These programs are paid for by permit and service fees. Additional programs without a source of funding directly associated with them include: Zoonotic Disease (animal to human) surveillance and investigation, such as West Nile virus and rabies, and investigations and surveillance of other illnesses resulting from environmental exposure to germs or chemicals through consumption of contaminated water or food, for example.
GCHD also partners with other environmental public health agencies, including Washington State Department of Health (DOH), Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) and Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA). These state agencies have their own Environmental Health Programs such as the Ecology Air Quality program, DOH Transient Accommodations program (hotel, motel inspection) and WSDA wholesale food inspection program.
If you have questions or concerns about the environmental health where you live, learn, work or play, GCHD staff will be happy to speak with you, whether it involves a program at GCHD or one of our environmental health partners. You can call our office at 509-766-7960, email your concern to info@granthealth.org or use the online complaint form by clicking here. Complaints can be filed anonymously.