Friday, April 19, 2024
4/19/2024
The City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services (LBDHHS), Environmental Health Bureau (EHB) is the environmental health regulatory agency in Long Beach. The EHB regulates food, pool and spa, hazardous and medical waste, and other facilities and provides recreational water testing, vector and pest control, and administration of grant programs. Long Beach is a diverse city of 462,628 residents covering 50.26 square miles and seven miles of coastline in southern California. Vulnerable populations live in west and north Long Beach and bear a disproportionate burden of health risk due to population density, low household incomes, major transportation corridors, higher disability and uninsured rates, and other factors. The Cal-Enviro Screen conducted in 2018 by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment identified communities most affected by sources of pollution and where people are most vulnerable. Many census tracts in the north and west of Long Beach scored in the top 90-100 percentile for population burden and vulnerability compared to the rest of California. The Long Beach Environmental Health Data Capacity (LBEHDC) Program will address health risks in three proposed projects: 1) Assess retail food facilities at the highest-risk of violations that lead to foodborne illness and evaluate if additional inspections and education of operators on food safety decrease facility risk (Component A); Assess pool and spa facilities in census tracts in north and west Long Beach with a disproportionate burden of health risk to determine if providing the highest-risk facilities additional inspections and pool safety education for their maintenance staff decreases their risk (Component B2); and 3) Assess if predictive modeling of untreated recreational beach water is effective to provide warnings to users and assess the potential of an ordinance requiring boats moored in city marinas use fluorescent dye in their sewage system to better identify and respond to discharges in public waters (Component B3). The LBDHHS is requesting $140,000 per year including $40,000 per year for Component A and $50,000 per year each for Components B2 and B3. Each project will strengthen the LBDHHS capacity to detect, prevent, and control environmental hazards using data-driven, evidence-based approaches. The EHB will increase the capacity and capabilities of our data management system, Envision Connect (EC). We will include data requirements of each project in a planned Request for Proposals to replace EC with a new data management system with more capabilities. Data management staff will participate in trainings on business intelligence and data modeling to build competencies with data informatics, analysis, and visualization. The EHB has significant experience implementing, managing, and completing multi-year federal grant awards with evaluation components. Food facility regulation, treated and untreated recreational water subject matter experts have strong skills in program planning and performance monitoring, partnership development, and evaluation. The LBDHHS administration supports programming with financial and budget management and reporting, personnel management, technology implementation, data analysis, and a sufficient technology infrastructure to execute a grant award. The LBEHDC team would be an excellent partner for a cooperative agreement with CDC to strategize, implement, and evaluate the proposed projects.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
