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Lincoln County health department reports mercury cleanup follow-up, grant opportunities and program updates
Summary
Health staff briefed commissioners on septic permitting improvements, an after-action review of a local mercury spill, grant opportunities for wildfire-smoke preparedness and respiratory-illness response, and animal-shelter planning; behavioral-health hiring and landfill expansion status were also reported.
Lincoln County Health Department staff provided a multipart update to the commissioners on Dec. 10 covering environmental health, hazardous-materials follow-up, program funding and operations.
Staff said they received 232 septic-permit applications this year and have issued 208 permits to date, with only 11 pending final signatures — an improvement in closure rates. The department is awaiting a DEQ contract for contracted permit review; once finalized, contracted-review work will generate additional revenue per lot reviewed.
On hazardous materials, public-health staff described work to complete an after-action review of a recent mercury incident, removal of contaminated building materials from a residence and coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency for oversight when the replacement house is delivered. Staff urged residents they may still drop off mercury-containing items at county landfills for collection and secure holding until consolidated shipments are possible.
The department described two small grants: a roughly $20,000 pilot to develop clean-air/wildfire-smoke preparedness for community buildings (working with a climate group and emergency-management staff) and a rapid-turnaround federal respiratory-illness grant (about $10,000) to help cover nurse time and immunizations during respiratory season. Behavioral-health staff said a new employee will start Jan. 5 and that reimbursement requests on current grants are up to date.
Staff also reported animal-shelter planning, including a proposed CDBG planning grant for shelter design and ongoing challenges scheduling spay/neuter operations. Landfill expansion and QA/QC reporting to DEQ were discussed separately; the department reported work is complete and the county awaits DEQ approval to utilize the new cell.
Commissioners thanked staff for post-incident outreach and for public-awareness messaging that, according to staff, reduced rumor and concern during the mercury response.
