HEALTH DEPARTMENT:
REGIONAL EFFORT CONSIDERED
The Allegheny County Health Department will contact surrounding counties to determine if there is any interest in forming a regional health authority to address common health and environmental issues.
Dr. Bruce Dixon, department director, told the Health Board yesterday that a regional health department, similar to the Region 13 counter-terrorism task force established recently, makes sense for southwestern Pennsylvania counties that now must rely on the state's under-staffed Health Department for services.
According to state law, only counties contiguous to Allegheny County -- Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Westmoreland and Washington -- would be eligible to join such a regional authority.
"There are important health issues that ought to be addressed in a regional way," Dixon said. "Each county would have to put in money to operate such a health authority, but they contribute money to the state now and they're not getting too much bang for their bucks."
Allegheny County and Phila-delphia County are the only counties in the state that operate their own health departments and each receives state and federal grants to support those operations.
In other action, the Health Board said it would consider a proposal at its March meeting that would prohibit so-called "bad actor" corporations in violation of air or water pollution rules from getting new permits to expand their operations or increase production.
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