Environmental Health

Our mission is to protect and improve the quality of the environment and the health of Washtenaw County citizens. Programs and services we provide include:

• Conduct soil evaluations for onsite septic systems
• Issue well and septic permits
• Inspect restaurants
• Inspect public swimming pools
• Inspect businesses that store or manufacture hazardous or toxic materials
• Investigate foodborne illness ("food poisoning") reports
• Investigate rodent, garbage, restaurant, and other nuisance complaints
• Sample public beach and public swimming pool water for bacteria
• Provide sample bottles for private well water testing
• Provide RADON test kits for home testing
• Provide solid waste, recycling, and home toxics collection services
• Provide public works services and lake management programs
• Inspect body art facilities (tattoo, piercing, branding, permanent cosmetics)

Disaster Clean-Up Information

3-20-12 Press Release: Washtenaw County to Expedite Building Permits for Victims of Tornado

The tornado in Dexter may have left some residents with questions about food safety, drinking water, and cleaning up flooded homes. The Environmental Health Division offers the following information to assist residents in cleaning up after a disaster:

Fact Sheets:

• Cleaning Up Your Flooded Basement
• Food Safety in a Power Outage
• Safe Drinking Water During a Disaster
• From the Red Cross - Power Outage Checklist
• From FEMA - Returning Home After a Disaster

If residents have household hazardous materials they would like to discard, including oil, gasoline, fertilizers/pesticides, cleaning chemicals, etc., please contact the Home Toxics Collection Center at 734-222-3950. This service is provided free of charge to Washtenaw County residents.

Anyone with questions regarding environmental concerns such as food, water, toxic materials, wells and septic systems may contact the Environmental Health Division at 734-222-3800.