Laurens County businesses that pay fees to cover environmental health inspections will soon be charged a higher rate for service. The same holds true for land owners who request inspections of water well samples, or require septic disposal evaluations.

The need to increase the fee inspection rate is due mainly to state funding cuts of about $1.4 million over the last three years, according to South Central Health District reports to the county commission.

Mark Harden, district director of Environmental Health, said the state’s health departments are funded by three means: state funds, county funding and fees collected by environmental inspections and clinical fees charged for services such as vaccines, exams and such. While county funding and environmental and clinical service fees have remained steady, the state’s cuts have cut deep.

“When the state put Medicaid under managed care, it affected our ability to collect,” Harden explained. Consequently, the 10-county health district has absorbed funding losses.

Harden explained that the health department, like every other business, is realizing a disparity between revenues and expenses.

“A big expense for health departments is travel costs, such as for inspectors,” Harden explained. “The last time the state approved an increase for mileage reimbursement was in July 2003 when it went from 28 cents per mile to 48.5 cents per mile.”

However, in the last five years, travel expense reimbursements haven’t necessarily kept pace with increasing fuel costs. According to the Department of Energy the average price per barrel of oil in 2003 was around $20, while the Associated Press reported Friday that oil prices have reached a record $106.18 a barrel for April 2008 delivery.

Harden said the South Central Health District proposed an increased fee schedule to the Laurens County Commission, which approved the increase last week. Laurens is the last of the 10 counties in the South Central Health District to approve the increase.

Increases in fees will be applied incrementally to businesses and private inspections Harden said, and should generate $40,950 in additional revenue based on the services provided last year.

For example, businesses such as food service establishments, may have paid $175 for annual inspection fees. The new fee would be $225. Tourist accommodations, such as hotels and motels and bed and breakfast establishments, will generally see a $50 annual increase, along with institutional inspections. The health department does not currently charge for government-operated facilities such as schools or prisons.

Private inspections, such as septic tank site evaluations and final inspections increased $50 from $125 to $175, as did inspections for system evaluations for relocation or loan certification from $100 to $150, and land inspection for septage disposal from $250 to $300.

Water sample requests such as for bacterial analysis from private wells will increase from $75 to $125 and private well mineral analysis from $10 to $20 per sample.