Island County residents worried about such issues as the availability of water, the presence of hazardous waste, indoor air quality or permit fees will soon have a new forum.

If these or any other health-related topics pique, rankle or rub people the wrong way, there’s an opportunity to do something about it. Under a new, federally funded program, the Island County Health Department is looking to gather a diverse group of residents to advise officials on what actually matters to taxpayers in the realm of environmental health.

Earlier this year, the Health Department received a grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control to implementing what is known as the PACE-EH model — Protocols for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health.

An initial $175,000 is alloted for a three-year program designed to build stronger ties to local communities, so county environmental health officials are assembling a citizen-based assessment team which will speak directly to the concerns of tax-payers throughout Island County.

Environmental Health Director Keith Higman praised the PACE plan for its focus on putting power back into the hands of citizens. Too often, Higman said, local health departments function on a “top-down” basis, with rules and regulations devolving to local agencies from the state and federal level. PACE-EH, and more specifically the assessment team, seeks to reverse this trend by developing stronger ties to the community and allowing citizens to participate more directly in policy decision-making.

“It’s helping us to shape the future of environmental health in Island County,” Higman said of the PACE grant, which is only one of five such grants awarded throughout the country and the only federal money to go to a small, rural county.

Project coordinator Celine Servatius currently is taking applications for the Assessment Team, which will be approximately 25-members strong and will involve people from all regions with a “diversity of viewpoints.” Servatius envisions such a group being comprised of people from all walks of life, including business leaders, farmers, preservationists and so-called everyday citizens who represent the interests of families and neighborhoods.

“It will provide great dialogue between the health department and the community, and between community members,” Servatius said.

The ideal is that such “kneecap to kneecap” communication will result in an “increased capacity” for the health department, meaning it will become more efficient in such areas as data management, meeting public needs and improving staff knowledge of issues of concern to the community.

The assessment team, which Servatius hopes will meet for the first time July 18, will focus on issues revolving around environmental health, such as food safety, pest infestation, diseases, solid waste, septic concerns, school safety and chemical exposure. Members should be sincerely concerned about the impact of such issues on their surrounding community, and be willing to make an indefinite commitment to the group on a volunteer basis.

Servatius is shooting for meetings to take place for a couple of hours on the third Thursday of every month. Beyond this, she said she hopes team members will take time to connect with their local communities to learn about the health concerns of those in the region.

“We want to bring multiple voices together in one unified approach,” Servatius said.

The goal of such involvement, Servatius said, is for the health department to be in a “much better position to address their needs internally and with our support.” This also serves as a condensed version of the goals to be obtained by the PACE-EH model, which, ideally, look to reinvigorate the democratic process.

“I think this is a great opportunity for the community,” Servatius said. “It’s a win-win situation.”