M7.4 Local environmental services



Sacramento County Environmental Management Department is dedicated to protecting public health and the environment by complying to environmental regulations. EMD provides Sacramento County businesses and residents with education, training, inspection and enforcement.
The Environmental Management Department consists of two (2) primary divisions:
1-Environmental Health prevents, preserves, and improves environmental factors that affect the health and safety of our community. The staff that operates this division are known as Environmental health specialists- for example in the restaurant industry they are the food inspectors.
2-Environmental Compliance was designated by California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal-EPA) as the Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA). As CUPA, the Hazardous Materials Division it has six statewide environmental programs that it implements:
A-Underground storage if hazardous substances (USTs)
B-Hazardous Materials Business Plan (HMO) requirements
C-Hazardous Waste Generator requirements
D-California Accidental Release Prevention (Cal-ARP) program
E-Uniform Fire Code hazardous materials management plan
F-Above ground Petroleum Storage
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that EMD has a Waste Tire Program, for starters I had no idea that a program like this existed and I now understand why we need this program. The Waste Tire Program was implemented in 1989 with the passage of Assembly Bill 1943.  This legislation was the driving force for the Tire Recycling Management Fund which provides funds for tire recycling, reuse, recovery, and stockpile reduction operations. It is estimated that 44 million waste tires are generated in California each year, with legacy tire piles reduced in California to around 250,000 tires (was in the millions prior to the implementation of the program). Why do we care about a program regarding Waste Tires?
1-Tires are an excellent vector for disease carrying vectors like mosquitoes and rodents
2-Burning of tires is detrimental to public health because it cases the release of toxic compounds that ends up polluting the air, soil and groundwater.
I'm attaching a link that shows the divisions within EMD

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 11, 2018 at 12:13 PM

    Hi Claudia,

    It's always reassuring to see that the communities we live in have some sort of regulated programming to ensure environmental safety. I think the waste tire program that you mentioned is an issue that is often overlooked, but necessary. There was a large tire fire near my hometown this past week and I believe stricter regulations in regards to stockpiling could have decreased the risk of this occurring.

    In addition, I notice that you mentioned food inspectors and I didn't see that within my own research on my health department's environmental health page. This is a career I'm interested in pursuing, so I'd like to look into my county's health department website to see where this service is mentioned within the website.

    ReplyDelete

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