To the editor:
In 2015, a record review request was submitted by the Brown County Health Department to the Indiana State Department of Health as part of a procedure to try to get the BCHD placed on a list to issue septic permits and inspections for light commercial septic systems meeting certain criteria.
The environmental health specialists had been aware of small business owners having delays in obtaining approval to install onsite sewage systems from the ISDH. ISDH was approving local health departments to do this service as a way to expedite obtaining septic services for their businesses. Normally, the ISDH does all commercial work. The BCHD normally does only residential septic services and permits.
The topic of this letter is a report generated and issued by the Indiana Environmental Public Health Division of the Indiana State Department of Health made at the time of that review: Project name “OSS Program Review,” dated 05/19-20/2015.
This review has been circulated among a number of Brown County residents and there is concern the report could easily be misunderstood if its history and purpose were not also known.
The Brown County Board of Health (BCBH) therefore requested that an educational letter be directed to the citizens of Brown County through the Brown County Democrat newspaper and posted on the Brown County Department of Health website.
The ISDH does these reviews by invitation only. The BCHD was trying to better meet the county residents needs by requesting this review. Only one other review has been done in the last 27 years. We are a local rule state and the state of Indiana cannot dictate to Brown County how it keeps its records.
The review was a “paperwork only” review and did not involve any field work evaluation. No site was visited or evaluated in this review, as is always done by the BCHD.
The review clearly demonstrated the BCHD needed to change and improve its documentation if it wanted to achieve its stated goal of being placed on the ISDH list to do limited commercial work.
The BCBH and the Brown County Health Officer investigated this 2015 report in great detail in 2017, and had the individual records reviewed and site visits made on all files reviewed in the report. Persons involved in this review reported to the BCBH included the ISDH director of the Environmental Public Health Division, the field trainer and inspector of the type of septic systems installed (who also trains the ISDH employees) and the environmental health specialists of the BCHD, and the health officer.
First and foremost, all septic systems that had record reviews are installed correctly and were properly approved.
Secondly, after this first review, several changes in the recordkeeping were made, again to try to improve the local service by gaining permission to issue permits for certain types of commercial septic systems.
Future plans include having another record review to see if we have improved, such that we may be placed on the desired list.
If any homeowner is concerned about their recently installed septic system, the environmental health specialists would be happy to review their specific file with them. Again, all recently installed septic systems were installed correctly.
The Brown County Health Department strives to do what is right and best for its citizens. The latest Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for Public Health county health rankings recognizes Brown County as the fourth-most healthy county environment in Indiana. The BCHD has contributed to this success.
Also, during the review, the environmental health specialists were commended by the outside investigators for their thorough work as compared to two other standards: 1.) What had been done historically in the county with the improvements that have been made in the last several years, and 2.) Compared to what our neighboring counties are doing to ensure proper septic system installations, the Brown County environmental specialists have done a much more thorough job.
The Brown County Health Department will continue to strive to make the county environment as healthy as possible for all of our citizens.
Respectfully submitted,
Norman W. Oestrike, MD, Brown County health officer
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