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ORANGE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT <br /> Board of Health Policy and Procedure Manual <br /> Section I: Board Adopted Policies <br /> Policy A: Requests for Environmental Services and Assessments <br /> Reviewed By: Board of Health&Health Director&Environmental Health Division Director <br /> Approved By: Board of Health <br /> Policy I.A. <br /> This policy covers processing and budgetary considerations regarding requests from citizens <br /> and communities for environmental services and assessments to determine whether <br /> environmental contaminants are present, environmental degradation has occurred or for the <br /> applicant's information for future reference. <br /> Purpose: <br /> The purpose of this policy is to determine when environmental services, surveys or <br /> assessments will be conducted and also to set forth the funding mechanisms for those actions. <br /> Also covered within the policy scope are the decision tree for when community assessments <br /> will be considered and the ensuing financial responsibilities for those expanded efforts. This <br /> policy is not intended to cover nor does it cover applications, inspections, approvals or other <br /> processes for regulatory programs generally administered in the Environmental Health <br /> Services Division. <br /> Section I Policy Overview <br /> 1.0 Environmental Health routinely receives concerns and queries from Orange <br /> County residents regarding environmental investigations to determine whether <br /> an environmental exposure exists and also whether unusual disease prevalence <br /> is occurring. These requests may arise from an individual or from <br /> communities. This policy addresses general and specific practices for these <br /> requests and assigns responsibilities for their dispensation. <br /> Section II Individual Requests <br /> 1.0 Individual residents may request services and environmental assessments for <br /> their property, whether owned outright, leased, rented, or otherwise legally <br /> occupied. These services include septic inspections, water samples, indoor air <br /> quality(IAQ) assessments, vector control inspections, single disease case <br /> investigations, or other services germane to current or future environmental <br /> health programs. <br /> Section III Community or Collective Requests <br /> 1.0 The following types of community or collective studies and assessments will <br /> be considered and acted upon by staff with the appropriate approval(s) when <br /> environmental conditions are suspected as a causative factor: <br /> 1.1 Acute and Chronic Disease <br /> a. Airborne, vector-borne and waterborne diseases are environmentally <br /> related in their transmissions and may affect a community as a whole. <br /> Chronic diseases such as asthma and cancer can have causative factors <br /> Review Annually(July) Pagel of 4 <br /> Original Effective Date: August 24,2006 <br /> Revision Dates: 11/2013,11/2014,8/2015,10/2019,8/2020 <br /> S:\MANAGERS WORKING FILES\BOH\AGENDAS&ABSTRACTS\2020 Agenda&Abstracts\August 2020\Pdfs for webpage\V.A. <br /> Policy Review Attachments\I.A.Environmental Assessment Policy BOH Manual August 2019.doc <br />