Environmental Services

For the first 72 hours after a disaster or crisis, you can expect to be on your own. Sound scary? It can be if you’re not prepared. As emergency services work to get resources to the area, remember they’ll most likely seek to help the more vulnerable populations first, such as the elderly, hospitalized and children. You need to be able to take care of your family for the first 72 hours without power, access to heat or possibly even water. Let’s start building your plan!

Daily, we have an epidemiologist who reports on conditions and tracks communicable diseases that could pose a threat to the community’s overall health and wellbeing.

It was a Friday afternoon when they got the call. A child had tested positive for a communicable disease and they had previously been at daycare. When situations like this happen, our department goes into immediate action. We are looking for ways to prevent and track the spread of the disease. We walked the daycare through information to help other children from getting sick. Then we continued to monitor the child’s sickness and also any other reports coming in. 

This is just one example of how tracking the community’s overall health helps prevent threatening situations from occurring or escalating.

We have environmentalists who do routine checks of food service establishments and public facilities that could pose a threat to public health. This includes establishments such as restaurants, grocery stores, swimming areas, hotels, vending machines and more. These inspections are done without notification to the facility. 

If you plan on opening a new facility you’ll need to submit plans to be approved by your local health environmentalist. We have more resources and documents for food service establishments and public facilities here.

Before a facility is built, if it will not tie into a sewage system, the site must be evaluated by the health department. Also, all sewage disposal systems with a subsurface discharge must be inspected by the health department. Download forms and read more about the requirements of your sewage system.

Septic tank cleaning vehicles and septic disposal sites are inspected annually for compliance with health regulations. Compliance with public health regulations ensures proper safety and sanitation requirements are being met. You can read about those requirements from this legislation (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). 

Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from the natural decay of uranium and is found in nearly all soils. Radon gas moves through the soil into the air and can become trapped in homes and structures. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. The health department provides radon test kits free of charge to residents of the pennyrile district. Also, we can provide you with more information about how to reduce radon levels in your home or building. Read more about it here.

We investigate all reported instances of possible human exposure to the rabies virus by an animal bite. We work with local hospitals, veterinarians, and other health care providers to perform our quarantine process. The quarantine includes confining the animal to observe for clinical signs of rabies, which lasts a period of ten days starting on the day of the bite. If the animal in question remains healthy throughout the confinement period it is considered healthy and no further action is necessary. Please call us immediately if you believe you or someone you know has been exposed to the rabies virus. You can fill out this form and either deliver or fax this to us.

Your local health department occasionally receives nuisance complaints concerning household garbage, surfacing sewage or other public health issues. Maintaining strict confidentiality, each complaint is investigated and, if required, efforts are made to resolve the issue with the offending party. If resolution cannot be obtained through the health department further action can be taken through the local county attorney.

If you would like your water tested, this service is available through the health department upon request. Water samples are sent to a certified state laboratory for testing for the presence of contaminants such as E Coli and Coliform bacteria. Water samples are $50.00. To schedule a water test please contact us.